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A. Dey (NOAO), C. Greer (KPNO REU and Northwestern Univ.), B.T. Jannuzi, J. Najita (NOAO), D. Stern (JPL), S. Dawson (U.C. Berkeley), F. Chaffee (W. M. Keck Observatory), H. Spinrad (U.C. Berkeley)
The NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey will image a total of 18 square degrees in 3 optical bands (Bw, R, and I) and 3 near-infrared bands (J, H, and K). One of the prominent features in the Bw-R vs. R-I color-color diagram resulting from the preliminary NDWFS data is a `loop' which we hypothesize traces the evolution of the reddest elliptical galaxies. We investigate the evolution of these ellipticals in the optical color-color and color-magnitude planes as predicted by the Bruzual & Charlot (1999) evolutionary spectral synthesis models and compare the predictions with the preliminary NDWFS data. We find that the evolution of the red ellipticals is reproduced by Bruzual-Charlot models with an exponentially decreasing star formation rate and a moderately high formation redshift (zf > 5). Preliminary spectroscopy of the reddest Bw-R populations confirms the basic predictions of the models.
The NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey is being supported by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. C. Greer's research was supported by the NOAO/KPNO REU Program, funded by the National Science Foundation.