VIK photometry of faint field galaxies

The colors of most of the observed galaxies are consistent with a population drawn from a broad redshift distribution. A few galaxies at K~19-20 are red in both colors (V-I>3; I-K>2, consistent with being early-type galaxies having undergone a burst of star formation at z>5 and viewed at z~1. At K>20, we find several (approximately eight) "red outlier" galaxies with I-K>4 and V-I<2.5, whose colors are difficult to mimic by a single evolving or nonevolving stellar population at any redshift unless they either have quite low metallicity or are highly reddened.

We compare the data against the evolutionary tracks of second-burst ellipticals and against a grid of models that does not constrain galaxy ages to a particular formation redshift. The red outliers' surface density is several per square arcminute, which is so high that they are probably common objects of low luminosity L<L*. Whether these are low-metallicity, dusty dwarf galaxies, or old galaxies at high redshift, they are curious and merit spectroscopic follow-up.