# Constraints on the Early Formation of Field Elliptical Galaxies

## 1 Introduction

The study of galactic evolution is a key area of observational cosmology since it is central to understanding the nature of galaxies and to probing the cosmological geometry. With observational data now revealing normal galaxies at redshifts as high as $`z5`$, we should be close to being able to locate or rule out the existence of a substantial high redshift field elliptical galaxy population. These old systems would have formed at the earliest times, and hence their existence would place very stringent constraints on galaxy and structure formation.

How elliptical galaxies form remains a topic of debate. The standard view (e.g. Eggen, Lynden-Bell & Sandage 1962; Tinsley & Gunn 1976) has been that elliptical galaxies formed the bulk of their stars in a single burst of star formation at high redshift, after which their stellar populations evolved passively. This monolithic collapse model for elliptical formation is in marked contrast with the hierarchical merging scenario for galaxy formation and evolution in which massive galaxies form at all redshifts from the gradual merging of smaller galaxies (e.g. White & Frenk 1991; Kauffmann, White & Guiderdoni 1993; Baugh et al. 1996). The monolithic collapse model appears to be supported by extensive studies of elliptical galaxies in rich cluster environments to $`z>1`$. Observational studies of the color evolution in cluster early-type galaxies have demonstrated that the changes with redshift are consistent with a model in which stellar populations formed at high redshift, $`z_f>2`$, and subsequently evolved passively (e.g. Aragón-Salamanca et al. 1993). A similar $`z_f>2`$ constraint is obtained from the observed small scatter in the color-magnitude relations in distant clusters (e.g. Ellis et al. 1997; Stanford, Eisenhardt & Dickinson 1995, 1998), and from the evolution of the Mg b versus $`\sigma `$ relation (e.g. Ziegler & Bender 1997) and the fundamental plane relation (e.g. van Dokkum & Franx 1996; Kelson et al. 1997). However, Kauffmann & Charlot (1998) have argued that in the rich cluster environment hierarchical elliptical galaxy evolution may appear indistinguishable from that predicted by the passive evolution scenario. In their model, rich clusters at high redshift correspond to regions where the very earliest star formation occurred, and hence the star formation and merging histories of galaxies in these clusters have progressed much further than have those of field galaxies. Thus, in observing apparently similar clusters of galaxies, observers may be selecting only the oldest galaxies at any particular redshift.

Because the passive evolution scenario for elliptical galaxies predicts a population of $`z>1`$ galaxies with ultrared optical-near-IR colors, this scenario can be sensitively tested in the field environment with very deep optical and near-infrared imaging surveys. Low-redshift galaxies with significant star formation can mimic the very red colors of an evolved elliptical if they are greatly reddened by dust, but the number of ultrared objects observed gives an upper limit on the comoving number density of passively evolving elliptical galaxies, provided that there does not exist a population of completely dust-obscured high redshift objects. Imaging surveys have only recently become deep enough in both the optical and the near-IR bands to test for the presence of ultrared galaxies at $`z>1`$.

Cowie et al. (1994) presented a very deep $`K`$-band survey of four small fields of total area $`5.9`$ arcmin<sup>2</sup> which they later followed up spectroscopically (Songaila et al. 1994). From their data they found that the space density of extremely red objects having $`IK>4`$, the expected color for old stellar populations at $`z>1`$, implied that at most ten per cent of the total local galaxy population could have formed in early single-starburst events. A comparison of their $`K<20.9`$ sample with a wider, brighter sample having $`K<17.8`$ also showed a scarcity of very red objects which could lie at redshifts $`z>1`$. Thus, Cowie et al. suggested that either galaxies are less luminous at these higher redshifts or the mix of galaxy types is much bluer than expected. Recently, Hogg et al. (1997) and Moustakas et al. (1997) analyzed a few very deep, small-area fields in $`K`$. Hogg et al. imaged two subfields ($`1`$ arcmin<sup>2</sup> total area) in the Hubble Deep Field (hereafter HDF; Williams et al. 1996) with the Near Infrared Camera on Keck to a 90 per cent completeness limit of $`K=23`$. Most of their sources had colors consistent with either old stellar populations observed at $`0<z<1`$ or younger populations observed over a wide range of redshifts. However, they also found four sources which had very red colors, $`I_{814}K>4`$. Moustakas et al. presented colors for very faint galaxies ($`K<23`$) in two fields covering an area $`2`$ arcmin<sup>2</sup>. They found a small population of galaxies in their sample whose infrared bright ($`IK>4`$) but relatively blue optical ($`VI2.5`$) colors could not be reproduced with any of their standard models. Moustakas et al. suggested three possible scenarios to explain these ‘red outliers’, namely (i) a universal event of secondary bursts in $`z3`$ passively evolving elliptical galaxies, (ii) a combination of very low metallicity and substantial reddening in $`z<1.5`$ galaxies, or (iii) the existence of dusty, old populations within the galactic nuclei of normal galaxies. In their preliminary follow-up analysis, Moustakas et al. (1998) presented HST WFPC2 and NICMOS morphologies for some of their red outliers. These images showed the objects to be compact and asymmetric and hence unlikely to be relaxed systems. Thus, these authors now prefer the explanation that the red outlier population consists of very dusty $`z>1.2`$ systems containing bright nuclei powered by either AGNs or starbursts. In the present paper we find that such objects are much rarer than was measured by Moustakas et al.

The results of the above three surveys, as well as those from recent $`K`$-band HDF imaging by Dickinson et al. (in preparation), were subsequently analyzed by Zepf (1997) in an effort to determine the dominant formation mechanism for elliptical galaxies. Zepf compared the observed surface densities of the ultrared galaxies to a given magnitude limit with their expected surface densities, assuming a passive formation model in which all early-type galaxies form in short bursts at high redshift. He concluded that there is a strong deficit of galaxies with extremely red colors in the observed fields (therefore ruling out models where typical ellipticals are fully assembled and have formed all of their stars by $`z>5`$), and thus that most ellipticals must have formed at $`z<5`$ through merging and associated starbursts.

Using the HDF dataset of Dickinson et al., Franceschini et al. (1998) analyzed the spectral energy distributions of morphological ellipticals in the HDF to date the dominant stellar populations. They found that the majority of the bright early-types were at $`z1.3`$ and had colors which indicated ages of typically $`1.53`$ Gyr. The sudden disappearance of objects at $`z>1.3`$, when the objects should have been visible in a luminous star-formation phase, is explained by Franceschini et al. as being due to the fact that during the first few Gyrs of the galaxy’s lifetime the objects are undergoing dust-enshrouded merger-driven starbursts.

Provided that high redshift ellipticals are not completely obscured by dust, deep infrared surveys can detect their presence and place constraints on their surface density. Existing deep $`K`$-band surveys have concentrated on small areas due to the small format of the IR arrays. However, with the development of large-format IR arrays such as the HAWAII ($`1024\times 1024`$) HgCdTe devices, it is now feasible to conduct deep near-infrared surveys over wider fields. In this paper we present a wide-field $`HK^{}`$ survey of the HDF and its Flanking Fields (FFs) with corresponding $`V`$ and $`I`$ colors. The primary goal of our imaging survey is to compile a well-defined sample of near-infrared selected galaxies over a large area to place constraints on the population of ultrared galaxies. As a complement to this wide-field survey, we have also obtained very deep $`HK^{}`$-band observations of the HDF itself.

In §2 we describe our new data sample and the construction of our photometric catalogs. In §3 we use our imaging data to study galaxy colors and the effects of dust, and in §4 we use our data to put constraints on the high redshift field elliptical population. §5 summarizes our results.

## 2 Data

### 2.1 Observations

To complement the multi-color data of the HDF, we have obtained deep follow-up $`HK^{}`$ observations of the HDF and its FFs using the University of Hawaii 2.2-m telescope and the Canada-France-Hawaii 3.6-m telescope (CFHT). We have also obtained deep $`V`$ and $`I`$-band observations with the CFHT over a much larger area and Keck LRIS $`B`$-band observations in a strip across the center of the $`HK^{}`$ wide-field image.

The wide-field near-infrared images were obtained with the UH 2.2-m on the nights of UT 1997 April 17-22 with the University of Hawaii QUick Infrared Camera (QUIRC; Hodapp et al. 1996). QUIRC utilizes a $`1024\times 1024`$ pixel HgCdTe Astronomical Wide Area Infrared Imaging (HAWAII) array produced by the Rockwell International Science Center. At the f/10 focal ratio, the field of view of QUIRC is $`193\times 193`$ arcsec square with a scale of $`0.1886`$ arcsec pixel<sup>-1</sup>. The observations were made using a notched $`HK^{}`$ filter with a central wavelength of $`1.8\mathrm{\mu m}`$ (Wainscoat & Cowie, in preparation). The filter covers the longer wavelength region of the $`H`$-band and the shorter wavelength region of the $`K`$-band (roughly the $`K^{}`$ filter). Because of its broad bandpass and low sky background, this filter is extremely fast and is roughly twice as sensitive as the $`H`$, $`K^{}`$, or $`K_s`$ filters. We covered the full area imaged with the HST using a $`3\times 3`$ mosaic having a $`20`$ arcsec overlap. Thirteen spatially shifted short exposures (around 100 sec each depending on the background level) of step-size $`520`$ arcsec in all directions were obtained at each of the nine pointings within the full mosaic, and the mosaic pattern was repeated several times during the run. This observing strategy enabled us to use the data images for the subsequent sky subtraction and flat-fielding procedures. Each object is sampled by a different array pixel on each exposure, and the signal-to-noise ratio should improve as the square root of the number of frames. The dark current is insignificant in the QUIRC data. The data were processed using median sky flats generated from the dithered images and calibrated from observations of UKIRT faint standards taken on the first three nights when the sky was photometric. The FWHM on the total composite image was $`0.8`$ arcsec. The magnitudes were measured in $`3.0`$ arcsec diameter apertures and corrected to total magnitudes following the procedures of Cowie et al. (1994).

Since we will want to compare our $`HK^{}`$ measurements with previous $`K`$-band data, we need a conversion between the two bands. From $`K`$, $`HK^{}`$, and $`I`$ images of galaxies in the SSA13 field, we find the empirical relation $`HK^{}K=0.13+0.05(IK)`$. Figure 1 shows $`HK^{}K`$ versus $`IK`$ colors for a range of redshifts and galaxy types in the SSA13 field. The offset between the galaxies and the lone star in the figure reflects the different shapes of stars and galaxies in the wavelength region $`1.52.4`$µm. Stars rise to shorter wavelengths whereas galaxies are flatter, so even blue galaxies are offset from stars. Since the coefficient of the $`IK`$ term is small, it suffices for us to use a median value for $`IK`$ in this relation, and we therefore obtain $`HK^{}K=0.30`$.

Deep imaging of the HDF itself was obtained in the $`HK^{}`$ filter with QUIRC on the UH 2.2-m on the nights of UT 1996 February 6-8 and with QUIRC on the CFHT on the nights of UT 1996 5-8 April. The CFHT image was registered to the UH 2.2-m data and a noise-weighted addition was performed. The net image quality is $`1^{\prime \prime }`$ FWHM. The noise in each field was estimated by measuring corrected $`3`$ arcsec diameter magnitudes at a number of blank sky positions. The $`2\sigma `$ limit for the wide-field image is $`HK^{}=21.4`$ and for the deep image is $`HK^{}=22.5`$.

The $`V`$ and $`I`$ optical images were obtained on the nights of UT 1997 April 3-8 with the CFHT and the University of Hawaii 8K CCD Mosaic Camera, a $`2\times 4`$ array of $`4096\times 2048`$ CCDs built by Metzger, Luppino, and Miyazaki. The image scale is $`0.21`$ arcsec pixel<sup>-1</sup>. The observations were made through Kron-Cousins $`I`$ and Johnson $`V`$ filters and comprise twenty-two 1200 sec $`I`$-band exposures (8.3 hrs) and thirty-three 1200 sec $`V`$-band exposures (11 hrs) under conditions of mixed transparency. Net image quality is $`0.9^{\prime \prime }`$ FWHM in $`I`$ and $`1.0^{\prime \prime }`$ FWHM in $`V`$. The UH 8K data were processed in the standard way using the imcat data reduction routines written by Nick Kaiser (1997). The data were calibrated to total Kron-Cousins $`I`$ and Johnson $`V`$ magnitudes using shallower images obtained under photometric conditions with the UH 2.2-m telescope. The $`2\sigma `$ limit for the $`I`$-band image is $`I=24.8`$ and for the $`V`$-band image is $`V=25.8`$.

### 2.2 Photometric Measurements and Catalogs

Objects were detected and measured on all the images using the SExtractor package written by Bertin & Arnouts (1996). Before extraction the data were convolved with a gaussian chosen to have a FWHM approximately equal to the seeing. Objects were extracted if they contained at least 25 connected pixels each with a signal above a threshold of $`1\sigma `$. The photometric measurements were then made on the unconvolved images using $`3`$ arcsec diameter apertures, with the photometric calibration described in §2.1, and corrected to $`6`$ arcsec diameter magnitudes (Cowie et al. 1994). All magnitudes presented in this paper are given as these near total magnitudes.

We determined the incompleteness of the wide-field $`HK^{}`$ catalog by measuring objects in the wide-field image at the positions of the deep near-infrared catalog. By comparing the fraction of galaxies already included in the wide-field $`HK^{}`$ sample with those measured using the deep $`HK^{}`$ catalog as a function of near-infrared magnitude, we found that the wide-field near-infrared catalog became more than 50 per cent incomplete at $`HK^{}21.3`$. We further checked the incompleteness of the wide-field near-infrared catalog, and determined the incompleteness of the deep $`HK^{}`$ field, by constructing $`I`$ and $`V`$ samples with SExtractor (as above). We measured photometry at the optical positions on the near-infrared images. We compared the fraction of galaxies already included in the $`HK^{}`$ sample with those measured using the optically-selected catalogs as a function of near-infrared magnitude and found a consistent incompleteness level for the wide-field near-infrared catalog with what we found above. The deep catalog became more than 50 per cent incomplete at $`HK^{}22.3`$.

To determine the J2000 coordinates for our $`HK^{}`$-selected sample, we first obtained the plate scale and the orientation angle for the QUIRC camera using our wide-field $`HK^{}`$ image. We chose to use the APM eo674 plate, where our field is slightly more centered. From a fit to 33 APM objects ($`17<V<22.5`$) covering our field, we found a plate scale of 0.189 arcsec pixel<sup>-1</sup> and an orientation angle of 0.636 deg North through East, both of which are consistent with previous determinations for the QUIRC camera (the orientation angle was previously determined to be 0.728 deg for B1950). The dispersion of the fit was 0.32 arcsec in both the RA and Dec directions, giving a total error of 0.45 arcsec. This error is comparable to the expected astrometric errors in the APM catalog. As a check, we compared the RA and Dec positions in the two APM plates covering the region (eo1427 and eo674) and found an rms error between the two plates of 0.73 arcsec. The average offsets of 1.8 arcsec in RA and 1.5 arcsec in Dec between the positions measured from the two plates are consistent with the APM errors which fully dominate the error budget. (Our field lies close to the edge of the eo1427 plate where the APM solution may be worse.) Futhermore, the offsets are consistent with the advertised accuracies of the APM absolute astrometry. No systematic effects were visible.

The offsets to the VLA system, determined using the 5 radio sources in Fomalont et al. (1997) which have the smallest RA and Dec errors (0.2 arcsec) from their identified $`I<22`$ optical counterparts, were found to be 1.68 arcsec in the RA direction and -0.59 arcsec in the Dec direction, consistent with the expected APM absolute errors. The RMS errors of 0.16 arcsec in the RA direction and 0.11 arcsec in the Dec direction are consistent with the radio source errors.

The wide-field catalog of $`HK^{}`$-selected objects whose centers fall within an area $`7.9\times 7.9`$ arcmin<sup>2</sup>, the region over which the coverage is uniform, has been posted to a web page linked to the Hubble Deep Field Clearing House page at STScI. For each object we give an RA and Dec catalog number, a J2000 RA and Dec tied to the VLA coordinates of Fomalont et al. (1997) (described above), and our $`HK^{}`$, Kron-Cousins $`I`$, Johnson $`V`$, and, where available, $`B`$ total magnitudes. Ground-based spectroscopic survey observations of galaxies in the HDF have been taken with the Keck telescope and either published or made publicly available by several groups (Cohen et al. 1996; Steidel et al. 1996; Lowenthal et al. 1997; Phillips et al. 1997; Songaila 1997). These spectroscopic redshifts are included in the catalog.

### 2.3 Star-Galaxy Separation

Stars are cleanly separated from galaxies in the $`BI`$ versus $`IK`$ plane. The $`IK`$ colors are primarily a redshift diagnostic. As the redshift increases the ultraviolet part of the galaxy spectrum shifts into the $`I`$-band, and the $`IK`$ colors become progressively redder. On the other hand, $`BI`$ colors are primarily a diagnostic of galaxy morphology. The empirical star-galaxy separation line has been found to be $`(BI)2.5(IK)=2.0`$ (Kron 1980; Gardner 1992; Huang et al. 1997). For the objects in our data sample for which we have $`B`$-band data ($`50`$ per cent), this line, converted to $`HK^{}`$, also provides an appropriate star-galaxy separation. We determine a corresponding separation line in $`VI`$ versus $`IHK^{}`$ that reproduces the above star or galaxy classifications $`[(VI)2.0(IHK^{})=1.1]`$ and apply it to classify the remaining objects in our wide-field sample (see Fig. 3).

## 3 Galaxy Colors in the Near-Infrared Samples

In Fig. 2 we show the $`IHK^{}`$ versus $`HK^{}`$ and $`VHK^{}`$ versus $`HK^{}`$ color-magnitude diagrams (both stars and galaxies) for the $`5\sigma `$ near-IR selected samples in our wide-field and deep HDF images. Only five of the 664 objects in the $`5\sigma `$ wide-field sample were not detected at or above the $`2\sigma `$ level in $`I`$, and 41 were not detected at or above the $`2\sigma `$ level in $`V`$. For the deep HDF image, six of the 184 objects in the $`5\sigma `$ near-IR selected sample were not detected at or above the $`2\sigma `$ level in $`I`$, and 18 were not detected at or above the $`2\sigma `$ level in $`V`$. We assign these objects $`2\sigma `$ limiting magnitudes for the following analysis, and we mark their $`VHK^{}`$ and $`IHK^{}`$ colors as lower limits on the plots with an upward pointing arrow. The solid lines show the $`2\sigma `$ magnitude limits on the $`IHK^{}`$ or $`VHK^{}`$ colors, and the dotted lines in the two $`IHK^{}`$ versus $`HK^{}`$ figures indicate our adopted definition of $`IHK^{}>3.7`$ for the ultrared galaxy population, which we shall discuss in detail below.

In Figs. 3 and 4 we plot $`VI`$ versus $`IHK^{}`$ diagrams for our galaxy samples, letting the size of the symbols decrease with decreasing galaxy brightness. Galaxy evolutionary codes provide a powerful means for interpreting galaxy color-color distributions. To aid in our interpretation of the data, we overlay on the data template model galaxy tracks for three representative star formation histories. These models were produced with the code of G. Bruzual & S. Charlot (1996, private communication; hereafter BC96) assuming solar metallicity, Salpeter initial mass function (IMF), and exponentially declining star formation rates (SFR). The star formation time-scales adopted are $`\tau =(0.1,2,20)`$ Gyr, which roughly approximate elliptical, Sa, and constant star-forming galaxies, respectively. We label the tracks with representative redshifts over the range $`0<z<3`$ at which the galaxies would be observed. In all our model comparisons with the data we adopt a $`q_o=0.5`$ cosmology and a Hubble constant of $`H_o=50`$km s<sup>-1</sup> Mpc<sup>-1</sup>. Barring modeling uncertainties, galaxies following a particular evolutionary track in the color-color plane should appear scattered about the track by observational uncertainties.

The model curves in Fig. 3(a,b) illustrate the no-evolution scenario in which spectral energy distributions (SEDs) corresponding to local evolved galaxies (modeled with BC96 assuming a common epoch of formation, $`z_f=5`$) are moved back in redshift. Thus, the tracks represent color changes due to pure K-correction. In the figure these pure K-correction models are overlaid onto the (a) wide-field and (b) deep-field $`HK^{}`$-selected samples. Nearly all of our galaxies in both surveys have colors consistent with a $`z<1`$ population. The deep sample also contains a substantial population of objects consistent with high-$`z`$ star-forming galaxies. Significantly, however, although there are a number of bright objects with red $`VI`$, $`IHK^{}`$ colors consistent with the $`z<1`$ elliptical galaxy evolution tracks, there are no galaxies following these tracks for $`z>1`$.

The only possible candidates for $`z>1`$ pure K-correction ellipticals are galaxies found in $`K`$-selected field samples to have extremely red $`IK`$ colors. The $`IK`$ color of a pure K-correction elliptical becomes very red beyond $`z=1`$ where the 4000 Å break moves between the $`I`$ and $`K`$ bands. Thereafter, the $`IK`$ color is a sensitive function of the redshift. The color of a pure K-correction elliptical galaxy at $`z=1`$ is $`IK4`$. For consistency with previous surveys, we also select this number as the lower limit for defining the ultrared galaxy population. For our $`HK^{}`$ sample this cut-off is equivalent to $`IHK^{}=3.7`$. By $`z2`$ the $`IK`$ color should exceed six (i.e. assuming a large redshift of formation), but observed objects this red are extremely rare. The most robust $`IK>6`$ detections are those of Hu & Ridgway (1994). They found several $`K`$-band-bright galaxies in the field of the quasar PC1643+4631A (most probably serendipitously discovered field objects) with $`IK6.5`$. Recently, Cimatti et al. (1998) detected one of these objects (HR10) with the submillimeter bolometer array SCUBA on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, thereby demonstrating that HR10 is a very dusty galaxy undergoing a major episode of star formation.

Moustakas et al. (1997) separated out a population of $`IK4`$ galaxies in their sample having blue optical colors $`VI2.5`$ (the ‘red outliers’) and suggested that these objects could be fairly common. To $`K20`$ in their sample, two secure objects fall into this category. For their survey area of $`2`$ arcmin<sup>2</sup>, this corresponds to a surface density of $`3600`$ deg<sup>-2</sup>. For comparison, in our wide-field sample to an equivalent $`K=20.1`$ ($`HK^{}=20.4`$), we find 16 objects that could potentially satisfy the red outlier color criteria, which corresponds to a surface density of $`900_{700}^{1200}`$ deg<sup>-2</sup>. Given the fact that we cover a much larger area (61.8 arcmin<sup>2</sup>), it seems likely that the Moustakas et al. results may have been an upward statistical fluctuation or a clustering effect, and we conclude that this class of galaxy is rare.

Although the ultrared galaxy population does not appear to correspond well with the pure K-correction elliptical track, this region is spanned by some non-evolving spiral curves (e.g. $`\tau =2`$, which roughly approximates an Sa galaxy) with $`z>1`$. Songaila et al. (1994) found no evidence in their $`K<20`$ spectroscopic sample of the Hawaii Survey Fields for any ultrared galaxies between $`z=0`$ and $`z=1`$. They noted that their spectroscopically unidentified objects, many of which appeared to be red $`IK`$ objects, had colors which were consistent with being primarily in the redshift interval $`z=12`$ and falling somewhere between the color of an unevolved Sb and an unevolved Im galaxy.

In Fig. 4(a,b) we overlay on the wide-field data model curves which trace with redshift the colors of a passively evolving population of galaxies for two different epochs of formation, $`z_f=5`$ and $`z_f=3`$, respectively. Changing the cosmology to $`q_o=0.15`$, $`H_o=65`$km s<sup>-1</sup> Mpc<sup>-1</sup> makes very little difference in the model tracks. The first thing we notice in this figure is a population of objects at $`IHK^{}>3.7`$ which appears to fall outside the range of the passively evolving model curves. Although this region does not seem to be well represented by the passively evolving model curves, it may be better described by a reddened elliptical SED.

In Fig. 5 we compare a $`z_f=3`$ unreddened, passively evolving $`\tau =0.1`$ model galaxy with one reddened using the dust attenuation law of Calzetti (1997) for star-forming galaxies. In the galaxy rest-frame, the reddened, $`F_{red}(\lambda )`$, and intrinsic, $`F(\lambda )`$, fluxes are related by

$$F_{red}(\lambda )=F(\lambda )10^{0.4E(BV)k(\lambda )}$$
(1)   
In Calzetti’s recipe for reddening, the attenuation of the stellar continuum, $`k(\lambda )`$, is given by

$$k(\lambda )=[(1.860.48/\lambda )/\lambda 0.10]/\lambda +1.78$$
(2)   
for $`0.63\mathrm{\mu m}`$ $`\lambda 1.0\mathrm{\mu m}`$, and

$$k(\lambda )=2.656(2.156+1.509/\lambda 0.198/\lambda ^2+0.011/\lambda ^3)+4.88$$
(3)   
for $`0.12\mathrm{\mu m}`$ $`\lambda <0.63\mathrm{\mu m}`$. Our illustration in Fig. 5 is based on a color excess of $`E(BV)=0.3`$. The reddening law above incorporates the effects of extinction and scattering, as well as the geometrical distribution of the dust relative to the emitters. We can only apply this relation over the redshift range $`1.5<z<3.0`$ because of her wavelength restrictions.

The BC96 models show that a $`\tau =0.1`$ star formation model will approximate an elliptical galaxy SED after about 2 Gyr; if a galaxy formed at $`z_f=3`$ in our cosmology, it would not look like an elliptical until a redshift of $`z1.3`$. It is evident from Fig. 5 that the reddened elliptical model with $`z_f=3`$ could adequately explain the population of galaxies at $`IHK^{}>3.7`$. Thus, the ultrared population could be a population of dust-enshrouded ellipticals at $`z2`$ in the process of formation.

## 4 Constraints on High Redshift Field Ellipticals

Kauffmann (1996) showed that for a standard CDM model with density parameter $`\mathrm{\Omega }=1`$ and normalization parameter $`\sigma _8=0.7`$ ($`b1/\sigma _8`$), the global number density of bright elliptical galaxies at $`z=1`$ is smaller by a factor of $`23`$ than that at $`z=0`$. Later Kauffmann, Charlot & White (1996) applied the Schmidt $`V/V_{max}`$ test to the color-selected $`0.1<z<1`$ early-type population in the Canada-France Redshift Survey and found that the observational data were also inconsistent with the standard model of passive evolution. The density evolution observed was so strong that it implied that at $`z=1`$ only a third of the bright early-types were already assembled and had the colors of old, passively evolving systems. These authors hence inferred that an increasing fraction of the early-type population drops out of the sample with increasing redshift, either because they are no longer single units or because star formation has altered their colors. Lilly et al. (1995) had analyzed the same dataset previously, however, and had come to the conclusion that there had been no significant evolution.

As discussed in the introduction, an alternative approach is to place an upper limit on the number density of high-redshift evolved elliptical galaxies using very deep imaging at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. The present very large area survey allows us to place limits on the population of $`z>1`$ galaxies having ultrared optical-near-IR colors. In order to compare our results with previous $`K`$-band surveys, we convert our $`HK^{}`$ magnitudes to equivalent $`K`$ band magnitudes calculated from the calibration equation $`K=HK^{}0.30`$ determined in §2.1. The reddest color convincingly detected in our wide-field sample is $`IK=4.7\pm 0.3`$. This is comparable to the reddest color reported in the $`K20`$ sample of Cowie et al. (1994), $`IK=5.1\pm 0.4`$. Within the 61.8 arcmin<sup>2</sup> wide-field area we have surveyed ($`K20.1`$), we detect only 16 galaxies with galaxy colors $`IK>4`$. In the 7.8 arcmin<sup>2</sup> area of our deep HDF survey ($`K21.2`$), we detect 4 galaxies with colors $`IK>4`$; there are, however, an additional 5 galaxies with only $`2\sigma `$ limits on their $`I`$ magnitudes which could move into the ultrared region. In Table 1 we compare the fraction of objects (12/290) with $`IK>4`$ in the inclusive magnitude range $`K=1920`$ in our wide-field sample and the fraction of objects (4-9/81) with $`IK>4`$ in the inclusive magnitude range $`K=2021`$ in our deep sample with the results of Cowie et al. (1994). Due to improved photometric errors and our much larger area coverage, our wide-field determination of the fraction of ultrared galaxies in the range $`K=1920`$ is expected to be more reliable than that obtained from smaller fields by Cowie et al. (1994). Our improved $`I`$-band data may also be responsible for the fact that we find a smaller fraction of ultrareds in our small field $`K=2021`$ sample than Cowie et al., although this discrepancy could also be a galaxy clustering effect.

We can use our data to place a limit on the number of present-day elliptical galaxies that could have formed in an early burst at high redshift. To do this we need to calculate the space density of ultrared galaxies in our wide-field sample and compare it with the space density of local ellipticals to the same magnitude limit. We assume the ultrared galaxies in our wide-field survey are distributed within the redshift range $`1.3<z<2.2`$, corresponding to a late formation $`z_f=3`$ (Fig. 4b), in order to estimate the volume for our assumed cosmology ($`q_o=0.5`$ with $`H_o=50`$km s<sup>-1</sup> Mpc<sup>-1</sup>). A higher $`z_f`$ would give a larger volume and hence a tighter constraint. We find the space density, $`n_{ultrared}=N_{obs}/V`$, of the ultrared population to be $`n_{ultrared}1\times 10^4h_{50}^3`$Mpc<sup>-3</sup> (where $`h_{50}`$ is a dimensionless quantity, $`h_{50}=H_o/50`$). This value is to be compared with the local number density, given by the relation

$$n=\varphi _{50}^{}h_{50}^3\mathrm{\Gamma }(1+\alpha ,\beta )$$
(4)   
where $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(1+\alpha ,\beta )`$ is the incomplete gamma function with

$$\beta =10^{0.4(M_{min}M^{})}$$
(5)   
(Yoshii & Takahara 1988) and $`\alpha `$ the faint-end slope parameter of the Schechter luminosity function (Schechter 1976). At the limit of our wide-field sample, $`K=20.1`$, a galaxy at a mean redshift of $`\overline{z}=1.75`$ would have an absolute magnitude $`M_{min}=M_K=23.4+5\mathrm{log}h_{50}`$, after including passive evolution and K-corrections derived from a BC96 $`\tau =0.1`$ model ($`z_f=3`$, $`q_o=0.5`$). At present no local $`K`$-band luminosity functions by morphological type have been determined for the field. Therefore, we convert the $`B`$-band pure-elliptical luminosity function parameterization of Marzke et al. (1994) ($`M_B^{}=19.23+5\mathrm{log}h_{100}`$, $`\alpha =0.85`$, and $`\varphi _{100}^{}=(1.5\pm 0.4)\times 10^3`$Mpc<sup>-3</sup>) into a $`K`$-band elliptical luminosity function using the $`BK`$ color of an elliptical galaxy at $`z=0`$ ($`BK=4.43`$; Huang et al. 1998). This gives $`M_K^{}=25.16+5\mathrm{log}h_{50}`$ and $`\varphi _{50}^{}=1.9\times 10^4`$Mpc<sup>-3</sup>. Using Eqs. 4 and 5, we estimate the local elliptical galaxy space density to be $`n_{local}2\times 10^4h_{50}^3`$Mpc<sup>-3</sup>. These results indicate that the space density of the ultrared population is $`50`$ per cent of the space density of the local field elliptical population with $`M_K<23.4`$.

It is important to be aware of possible sources of systematic errors in this calculation. First, the comoving volume needed for the ultrared number density calculation depends on the model estimates of the redshift range over which $`IK>4`$; the volume would be larger and $`n_{ultrared}`$ correspondingly smaller for $`z_f>3`$. Second, the normalization of the density of the present-day luminosity function is not fully settled, with other surveys giving values that differ from the one we have used by $`\pm 25`$ per cent (see, e.g., the discussion in Huang et al. 1998). Third, a comparison with a local $`K`$-band pure-elliptical luminosity function would be preferable to the above conversion of a $`B`$-band pure-elliptical luminosity function; such a luminosity function should soon be available (J.-S. Huang, private communication). Fourth, the fraction of ultrareds is mildly dependent on cosmology; the above calculation, when repeated for a $`q_o=0.15`$ cosmology with $`H_o=65`$km s<sup>-1</sup> Mpc<sup>-1</sup>, gives about a 10 per cent lower ratio of $`n_{ultrared}/n_{local}`$, so our $`q_o=0.5`$ calculation is conservative in this regard. Fifth, the possibility of reddening in the high redshift sample should also be considered. If we assume that the possible reddening discussed in §3 applies to the entire ultrared population but not to the local population, then we find that the ratio increases by about 15 per cent. Finally, although our results are from a large area survey, they are still based on a single field. This introduces a statistical uncertainty associated with field-to-field variations, particularly in a population as small as the ultrared population. Results of other upcoming deep $`K`$-band surveys (e.g. papers in preparation by McCracken et al., Eisenhardt et al., and Barger et al.) will be useful in examining this issue.

## 5 Summary

We have presented wide-field $`V`$, $`I`$, and $`HK^{}`$ images of the Hubble Deep Field and Flanking Fields, as well as a deeper $`HK^{}`$ image of the Hubble Deep Field. Most of the objects in our sample fall within the expected regions of the $`VI`$ versus $`IHK^{}`$ color-color plane for blue galaxies at a range of redshifts or red elliptical galaxies at $`z<1`$. Significantly, no galaxies are found to follow the track of a pure K-correction elliptical at $`z>1`$ in either of our two samples. The track of a passive evolution model with a redshift of formation $`z_f=3`$ roughly describes the envelope of the galaxy population in the $`VI`$ versus $`IHK^{}`$ plane, except for a very small population of red outliers that could be dusty ellipticals in the process of formation. To an equivalent $`K=20.1`$ limit over a large 61.8 arcmin<sup>2</sup> area, we find a surface density for $`IK>4`$ objects of $`900_{700}^{1200}`$ deg<sup>-2</sup>, which indicates that this type of object is even more rare than previous small area surveys have suggested. Since an $`IK>4`$ color could be mimicked by a highly-reddened low-redshift galaxy, this is effectively an upper limit on the population of $`z>1`$ ultrared galaxies, provided that there is not a population of completely dust-obscured high redshift galaxies. We find that the space density of the ultrared galaxies is only a fraction of the estimated space density of present-day field ellipticals with $`M_K<23.4`$, and hence we infer that not all local field ellipticals could have formed in single bursts at high redshift.

We thank William Vacca for helpful interactions during the course of this work and Richard Ellis, Roberto Abraham, and Felipe Menanteau for discussions on related research. We thank the anonymous referee for helpful comments. This work was supported by grant AR06377.06-94A from Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. AJB also acknowledges support from NASA through contract number P423274 from the University of Arizona, under NASA grant NAG5-3042.