Paper detail

An high definition view of the COSMOS Wall at z~0.73

We present a study of a large filamentary structure at z~0.73 in the field of the COSMOS survey, the so-called COSMOS Wall. This structure encompasses a comprehensive range of environments from a dense cluster and a number of galaxy groups to filaments, less dense regions, and adjacent voids. It thus provides a valuable laboratory for the accurate mapping of environmental effects on galaxy evolution at a look-back time of ~6.5 Gyr, when the Universe was roughly half its present age. We performed deep spectroscopic observations with VIMOS at VLT of a K-band selected sample of galaxies in this complex structure, building a sample of galaxies complete in galaxy stellar mass down to a lower limit of log(M/M_sun)~ 9.8, which is significantly deeper than previously available data. Thanks to its location within the COSMOS survey, each galaxy benefits from a wealth of ancillary information. In this paper we detail the survey strategy and weighting scheme adopted to account for the biases introduced by the photometric pre-selection of our targets. We present our galaxy stellar mass and rest-frame magnitudes estimates together with a group catalog obtained with our new data and their member galaxies color/mass distribution. Owing to to our new sample we can perform a detailed, high definition mapping of the complex COSMOS Wall structure. The sharp environmental information, coupled with high quality spectroscopic information and rich ancillary data available in the COSMOS field, enables a detailed study of galaxy properties as a function of local environment in a redshift slice where environmental effects are important, and in a stellar mass range where mass and environment driven effects are both at work.