The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey VLT/FORS2 Spectroscopy in the GOODS-South Field: Part II

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  • 17 January 2006
Abstract
We present the second campaign of the ESO/GOODS program of spectroscopy of faint galaxies in the Chandra Deep Field South (CDF-S). Objects were selected as candidates for VLT/FORS2 observations primarily based on the expectation that the detection and measurement of their spectral features would benefit from the high throughput and spectral resolution of FORS2. The reliability of the redshift estimates is assessed using diagnostic diagrams and comparing the results with public data. 807 spectra of 652 individual targets have been obtained in service mode with the FORS2 spectrograph at the ESO/VLT, providing 501 redshift determinations. The typical redshift uncertainty is estimated to be sigma_z ~ 0.0009. Galaxies have been color selected in a way that the resulting redshift distribution typically spans two redshift domains: from z=0.5 to 2 and z=3.5 to 6.2. In particular, 94 B435-,V606-,i775-"dropout" Lyman break galaxies have been observed, yielding redshifts for 64 objects in the interval 3.4<z<6.2. Four sources have been serendipitously discovered in the redshift interval 4.8<z<6.0. Together with the previous release, 930 sources have now been observed and 724 redshift determinations have been carried out. The reduced spectra and the derived redshifts are released to the community through the ESO web page http://www.eso.org/science/goods/. Large scale structures are clearly detected at z~0.666, 0.734, 1.096, 1.221, 1.300, and 1.614. A sample of 34 sources with tilted [OII]3727 emission has been identified, 32 of them in the redshift range 0.9<z<1.5.

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