The Taiwan ECDFS Near-Infrared Survey: Ultra-deep J and K_S Imaging in the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South

Abstract

We present ultra-deep J and K_S imaging observations covering a 30' × 30' area of the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South (ECDFS) carried out by our Taiwan ECDFS Near-Infrared Survey (TENIS). The median 5σ limiting magnitudes for all detected objects in the ECDFS reach 24.5 and 23.9 mag (AB) for J and K_S , respectively. In the inner 400 arcmin² region where the sensitivity is more uniform, objects as faint as 25.6 and 25.0 mag are detected at 5σ. Thus, this is by far the deepest J and K_S data sets available for the ECDFS. To combine TENIS with the Spitzer IRAC data for obtaining better spectral energy distributions of high-redshift objects, we developed a novel deconvolution technique (IRACLEAN) to accurately estimate the IRAC fluxes. IRACLEAN can minimize the effect of blending in the IRAC images caused by the large point-spread functions and reduce the confusion noise. We applied IRACLEAN to the images from the Spitzer IRAC/MUSYC Public Legacy in the ECDFS survey (SIMPLE) and generated a J+K_S -selected multi-wavelength catalog including the photometry of both the TENIS near-infrared and the SIMPLE IRAC data. We publicly release the data products derived from this work, including the J and K_S images and the J+K_S -selected multi-wavelength catalog.