HST/WFPC2 morphologies and color maps of distant luminous infrared galaxies

Xianzhong Zheng (1, 2, 3) , François Hammer (1, 2, 3) , Hector Flores (1, 2, 3) , François Assémat (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) , Didier Pelat (6)

1 GEPI - Galaxies, Etoiles, Physique, Instrumentation
2 Physique des Galaxies et Cosmologie
3 Pôle instrumental
4 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
5 Pôle Astronomie du LESIA
6 LUTH (UMR_8102) - Laboratoire Univers et Théories

Using HST/WFPC2 imaging in F606W (or F450W) and F814W filters, we obtained the color maps in observed frame for 36 distant (0.4 < z < 1.2) luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs, L_IR(8-1000 mum) >= 10¹¹ L_&sun;), with average star formation rates of ˜100 M_&sun; yr^-1. Stars and compact sources are taken as references to align images after correction of geometric distortion. This leads to an alignment accuracy of 0.15 pixel, which is a prerequisite for studying the detailed color properties of galaxies with complex morphologies. A new method is developed to quantify the reliability of each pixel in the color map without any bias against very red or blue color regions.

Domaines: Astrophysique [astro-ph]

Xianzhong Zheng, François Hammer, Hector Flores, François Assémat, Didier Pelat. HST/WFPC2 morphologies and color maps of distant luminous infrared galaxies. Astronomy and Astrophysics - A&A, 2004, 421, pp.847-862. ⟨10.1051/0004-6361:20035784⟩. ⟨hal-03742201⟩