The Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (SERVS): Survey Definition and Goals

July 2012 • 2012PASP..124..714M

Authors • Mauduit, J. -C. • Lacy, M. • Farrah, D. • Surace, J. A. • Jarvis, M. • Oliver, S. • Maraston, C. • Vaccari, M. • Marchetti, L. • Zeimann, G. • Gonzáles-Solares, E. A. • Pforr, J. • Petric, A. O. • Henriques, B. • Thomas, P. A. • Afonso, J. • Rettura, A. • Wilson, G. • Falder, J. T. • Geach, J. E. • Huynh, M. • Norris, R. P. • Seymour, N. • Richards, G. T. • Stanford, S. A. • Alexander, D. M. • Becker, R. H. • Best, P. N. • Bizzocchi, L. • Bonfield, D. • Castro, N. • Cava, A. • Chapman, S. • Christopher, N. • Clements, D. L. • Covone, G. • Dubois, N. • Dunlop, J. S. • Dyke, E. • Edge, A. • Ferguson, H. C. • Foucaud, S. • Franceschini, A. • Gal, R. R. • Grant, J. K. • Grossi, M. • Hatziminaoglou, E. • Hickey, S. • Hodge, J. A. • Huang, J. -S. • Ivison, R. J. • Kim, M. • LeFevre, O. • Lehnert, M. • Lonsdale, C. J. • Lubin, L. M. • McLure, R. J. • Messias, H. • Martínez-Sansigre, A. • Mortier, A. M. J. • Nielsen, D. M. • Ouchi, M. • Parish, G. • Perez-Fournon, I. • Pierre, M. • Rawlings, S. • Readhead, A. • Ridgway, S. E. • Rigopoulou, D. • Romer, A. K. • Rosebloom, I. G. • Rottgering, H. J. A. • Rowan-Robinson, M. • Sajina, A. • Simpson, C. J. • Smail, I. • Squires, G. K. • Stevens, J. A. • Taylor, R. • Trichas, M. • Urrutia, T. • van Kampen, E. • Verma, A. • Xu, C. K.

Abstract • We present the Spitzer Extragalactic Representative Volume Survey (SERVS), an 18 deg² medium-deep survey at 3.6 and 4.5 μm with the postcryogenic Spitzer Space Telescope to ≈2 μJy (AB = 23.1) depth of five highly observed astronomical fields (ELAIS-N1, ELAIS-S1, Lockman Hole, Chandra Deep Field South, and XMM-LSS). SERVS is designed to enable the study of galaxy evolution as a function of environment from z ∼ 5 to the present day and is the first extragalactic survey that is both large enough and deep enough to put rare objects such as luminous quasars and galaxy clusters at z ≳ 1 into their cosmological context. SERVS is designed to overlap with several key surveys at optical, near- through far-infrared, submillimeter, and radio wavelengths to provide an unprecedented view of the formation and evolution of massive galaxies. In this article, we discuss the SERVS survey design, the data processing flow from image reduction and mosaicking to catalogs, and coverage of ancillary data from other surveys in the SERVS fields. We also highlight a variety of early science results from the survey.

Since this article was published online on 4 August 2012, corrections have been made. An erratum appears in the October 2012 issue of the journal. The current online version was corrected on 10 October 2012.

Links

• PREPRINT http://arxiv.org/abs/1206.4060
• ELECTR https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/666945
• SIMBAD http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbo.pl?bibcode=2012PASP..124..714M
• PDF https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1086/666945/pdf
• DATA https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/bibdata/2012/M/2012PASP..124..714M.html
• SPIRES http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+eprint+arXiv:1206.4060