Old passively evolving galaxies at z=1

We obtained the number counts and the rest-frame B-band luminosity function of color-selected old passively evolving galaxies (OPEGs) at z=1 with very high statistical accuracy using a large and homogeneous sample of about 4000 such objects with z'<25 detected in an area of 1.03deg^2^ in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey (SXDS) field. Our selection criteria are defined on the i'-z' and R-z' color-magnitude plane so that OPEGs at z=0.9-1.1 with formation redshift z_f_=2-10 are properly sampled with minimum contamination by other populations.

The limiting magnitude corresponds to the luminosity of galaxies with M*+3 at z=0 (where M* is the characteristic absolute magnitude of the Schechter galaxy luminosity function). We made pilot redshift observations for 99 OPEG candidates with 19<z'<22 and found that at least 78% (73 of 93) of the entire sample, or 95% (73 of 77) of those whose redshifts were obtained, indeed lie between z=0.87 and 1.12, and most of their spectra show a continuum break and strong Ca H and K lines, indicating that these objects are indeed dominated by the old stellar populations.