Evolution of Very Faint Field Galaxies and Quasars

Extract

This paper reports preliminary results of two long-term redshift surveys that are near completion. One consists of nearly 400 redshifts of field galaxies; the sample is faint enough (B ≲ 22) to test models of galaxy luminosity and color evolution (and possibly cosmology) and to search for the presence of very large-scale structures among distant field galaxies. The other consists of over 60 spectra of quasar candidates of similar faintness; the identifications and redshifts of bona-fide quasars provide strong constraints on the evolution and shape of the luminosity function of distant quasars. Almost all of the observations have been made with the 4m telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory with the Cryogenic Camera in multiaperture mode. The spectral range covered 4500Å to 7500Å with 15Å FWHM resolution and 4Å per pixel; simultaneous exposures of an hour or two were made for about 10 objects within the 5 arcmin field of view.