CLAUDS: The CFHT Large Area U-band Deep Survey - Marcin Sawicki

Marcin Sawicki (Saint Mary's University)

CLAUDS: The CFHT Large Area U-band Deep Survey

The CFHT Large Area U-band Deep Survey (CLAUDS) uses ~70 nights of dedicated dark-time imaging (plus significant additional archival data) to map a representative 18.6 square degrees of the Universe to a median depth of U = 27.1 AB (5?).  These are the deepest U-band images ever assembled over this large  area.

These CFHT MegaCam data are combined with the optical (grizy + narrowband) imaging being taken to comparable depths by Subaru’s HSC camera in the same fields. Combining the U and optical data allows the selection of  z~2-3 star-forming galaxies and greatly improves photometric redshift performance at z<1, allowing science projects that explore 85% of cosmic time with excellent statistics and that are virtually free of cosmic variance.

With the CLAUDS and Subaru HSC data now in hand and merged, we have entered the scientific exploitation phase, and I will show some example science applications of this unmatched dataset, including galaxy stellar mass functions, galaxy-galaxy mergers, and satellite distributions around massive central galaxies.