Roman-Cosmic Noon: A Legacy Spectroscopic Survey of Massive Field and Protocluster Galaxies at \(2<z<3\)

Protoclusters are the densest regions in the distant universe (\(z>2\)) and are the progenitors of massive galaxy clusters (\(M_{halo}>10^{14}{\rm M}_\odot\)) in the local universe. They undoubtedly play a key role in early massive galaxy evolution and they may host the earliest sites of galax...

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Published in:arXiv.org 2023-06
Main Authors: Rudnick, Gregory, Bahé, Yannick, Balogh, Michael, Cooper, Mike, Hatch, Nina, Vulcani, Benedetta, Wilson, Gillian, Castignani, Gianluca, Cerulo, Pierluigi, Gabriella De Lucia, DeMarco, Ricardo, rest, Benjamin, Jablonka, Pascale
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Galactic clusters
Galactic evolution
Galaxies
Local group (astronomy)
Spectrum analysis
Star & galaxy formation
Star clusters
Star formation
Stars & galaxies
Stellar age
Stellar mass
Universe
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Summary:Protoclusters are the densest regions in the distant universe (\(z>2\)) and are the progenitors of massive galaxy clusters (\(M_{halo}>10^{14}{\rm M}_\odot\)) in the local universe. They undoubtedly play a key role in early massive galaxy evolution and they may host the earliest sites of galaxy quenching or even induce extreme states of star formation. Studying protoclusters therefore not only gives us a window into distant galaxy formation but also provides an important link in our understanding of how dense structures grow over time and modify the galaxies within them. Current protocluster samples are completely unable to address these points because they are small and selected in a heterogeneous way. We propose the Roman-Cosmic Noon survey, whose centerpiece is an extremely deep (30ksec) and wide area (10 deg\(^2\)) prism slitless spectroscopy survey to identify the full range of galaxy structures at \(22\). With the prism spectroscopy and some modest additional imaging this survey will measure precise stellar mass functions, quenched fractions, galaxy and protocluster morphologies, stellar ages, emission-line based SFRs, and metallicities. It will have extensive legacy value well beyond the key protocluster science goals.
ISSN:2331-8422