PI: Chao-Wei Tsai, California Institute of Technology, firstname.lastname@example.org
Address: Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, M/S 100-22, Pasadena, California 91125, U.S.A.
CoI: Lin Yan, IPAC, Caltech
CoI: Thomas Jarrett, IPAC, Caltech
CoI: Sara Petty, UCLA
CoI: Spencer Stanford, UC Davis
CoI: Peter Eisenhardt, JPL, Caltech/NASA
CoI: Edward Wright, UCLA
CoI: Carol Lonsdale, NAASC, NRAO
CoI: Dominic Benford, GSFC, NASA
CoI: Andrew Blain, Caltech
CoI: Roc Cutri, IPAC, Caltech
Title: Probing the Most Luminous, High-Redshift Galaxies Discovered by WISE
Abstract: We request 4 nights to obtain SOAR/OSIRIS near-IR photometry and spectroscopy follow-up observations of a sample of the extreme ultra- luminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) candidates at z > 1 selected using infrared data from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). One of the two primary science goals of WISE, a NASA MIDEX mission currently surveying the entire sky at 3.4, 4.6, 12 and 22 \micron, is to identify such extreme ULIRGs (the other is to identify cool brown dwarfs). The candidates are selected to have mid-IR colors indicating starburst- dominated ULIRGs at z=1.2 - 3, but 100 times more luminous than local ULIRGs with L_IR > 10^14L_\odot. In combination with the mid-infrared photometry, the near-IR photometric and spectroscopic observations will allow us to distinguish high-z targets from local red populations, determine the luminosity, and further study the star formation activity from hydrogen recombination lines, extinction toward the star formation regions, and SED modeling on the stellar population of these galaxies.
National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, Arizona 85726, Phone: (520) 318-8000, Fax: (520) 318-8360