Program: GS-2005A-Q-20

Title:A GNIRS survey of massive galaxies at $z\sim 2.5$: stellar populations, kinematics, and scaling relations in the young Universe
PI:Pieter Van Dokkum
Co-I(s): Mariska Kriek, Ryan Quadri, Marijn Franx, Ivo Labbe, Eric Gawiser, Danilo Marchesini, Greg Rudnick, Paulina Lira, Garth Illingworth

Abstract

Using very deep near-infrared imaging we have recently uncovered a substantial population of galaxies at $z>2$ with red rest-frame optical colors, complementary to the well known UV-bright Lyman break galaxies. Initial results from near-IR spectroscopy suggest that these red galaxies are more massive, more metal rich, and have higher ages than typical Lyman break galaxies. However, the interpretation is hampered by small number statistics and non-uniform selection criteria. In the context of the GNIRS Key Science Opportunity we propose a public near-infrared spectroscopic survey of $K$-selected galaxies at $2.1<z<2.7$, to provide a large and uniform dataset for the study of massive galaxies in the early Universe. GNIRS is a factor 4--6 times more efficient for this type of survey than currently available spectrographs on other large telescopes. This high efficiency enables us to substantially increase the sample of $K$-selected high redshift galaxies with high quality spectra. We aim to measure rest-frame optical continuum breaks and line emission for $\sim 30$ $K$-selected galaxies at $z\sim 2.5$. The goals are to measure star formation rates, ages, dust content, linewidths, and metallicities of these galaxies, and to investigate correlations between these properties.

Publications using this program's data