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HiZELS: The High Redshift Emission Line Survey with UKIRT

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Thirty Years of Astronomical Discovery with UKIRT

Abstract

We report on HiZELS, the High-z Emission Line Survey, our successful panoramic narrow-band campaign survey using WFCAM on UKIRT to detect and study emission line galaxies at z ∼ 1–9. HiZELS employs the H2(S1) narrow-band filter together with custom-made narrow-band filters in the J and H-bands, with the primary aim of delivering large identically-selected samples of Hα emitting galaxies at redshifts of 0.84, 1.47 and 2.23. Comparisons between the luminosity function, the host galaxy properties, the clustering, and the variation with environment of these Hα-selected samples are yielding unique constraints on the nature and evolution of star-forming galaxies, across the peak epoch of star formation activity in the Universe. We provide a summary of the project status, and detail the main scientific results obtained so far: the measurement of the evolution of the cosmic star formation rate density out to z < 2 using a single star formation indicator, determination of the morphologies, environments and dust content of the star-forming galaxies, and a detailed investigation of the evolution of their clustering properties. We also summarise the on-going work and future goals of the project.

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Acknowledgements

Observations obtained with the Wide Field CAMera (WFCAM) on the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT). We are indebted to Andy Adamson, Luca Rizzi, Chris Davis, Tim, Thor and Jack for their support at the telescope. PNB is grateful for support from the Leverhulme Trust, DS for support from the FCT, and JEG for support from STFC.

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Correspondence to Philip Best .

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Best, P. et al. (2013). HiZELS: The High Redshift Emission Line Survey with UKIRT. In: Adamson, A., Davies, J., Robson, I. (eds) Thirty Years of Astronomical Discovery with UKIRT. Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings, vol 37. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7432-2_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7432-2_22

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