A 1.4 deg2 blind survey for C II], C III] and C IV at z ∼ 0.7–1.5 – I. Nature, morphologies and equivalent widths

While traditionally associated with active galactic nuclei (AGN), the properties of the C II] (λ = 2326 Å), C III] (λ, λ = 1907, 1909 Å) and C IV (λ, λ = 1549, 1551 Å) emission lines are still uncertain as large, unbiased samples of sources are scarce. We present the first blind, statistical study of C II], C III] and C IV emitters at z ∼ 0.68, 1.05, 1.53, respectively, uniformly selected down to a flux limit of ∼4 × 10−17 erg s−1 cm−1 through a narrow-band survey covering an area of ∼1.4 deg2 over COSMOS and UDS. We detect 16 C II], 35 C III] and 17 C IV emitters, whose nature we investigate using optical colours as well as Hubble Space Telescope (HST), X-ray, radio and far-infrared data. We find that z ∼ 0.7 C II] emitters are consistent with a mixture of blue (UV slope β = −2.0 ± 0.4) star-forming (SF) galaxies with discy HST structure and AGN with Seyfert-like morphologies. Bright C II] emitters have individual X-ray detections as well as high average black hole accretion rates (BHARs) of ∼0.1 M⊙ yr−1. C III] emitters at z ∼ 1.05 trace a general population of SF galaxies, with β = −0.8 ± 1.1, a variety of optical morphologies, including isolated and interacting galaxies and low BHAR (<0.02 M⊙ yr−1). Our C IV emitters at z ∼ 1.5 are consistent with young, blue quasars (β ∼ −1.9) with point-like optical morphologies, bright X-ray counterparts and large BHAR (0.8  M⊙ yr−1). We also find some surprising C II], C III] and C IV emitters with rest-frame equivalent widths (EWs) that could be as large as 50–100 Å. AGN or spatial offsets between the UV continuum stellar disc and the line-emitting regions may explain the large EW. These bright C II], C III] and C IV emitters are ideal candidates for spectroscopic follow-up to fully unveil their nature.