We present the MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Survey, a mosaic of nine MUSE fields covering 90% of the entire HUDF region with a 10-h deep exposure time, plus a deeper 31-h exposure in a single 1.15 arcmin 2 field. The improved observing strategy and advanced data reduction results in datacubes with sub-arcsecond spatial resolution (0 . 65 at 7000 Å) and accurate astrometry (0 . 07 rms). We compare the broadband photometric properties of the datacubes to HST photometry, finding a good agreement in zeropoint up to m AB = 28 but with an increasing scatter for faint objects. We have investigated the noise properties and developed an empirical way to account for the impact of the correlation introduced by the 3D drizzle interpolation. The achieved 3σ emission line detection limit for a point source is 1.5 and 3.1 × 10 −19 erg s −1 cm −2 for the single ultra-deep datacube and the mosaic, respectively. We extracted 6288 sources using an optimal extraction scheme that takes the published HST source locations as prior. In parallel, we performed a blind search of emission line galaxies using an original method based on advanced test statistics and filter matching. The blind search results in 1251 emission line galaxy candidates in the mosaic and 306 in the ultradeep datacube, including 72 sources without HST counterparts (m AB > 31). In addition 88 sources missed in the HST catalog but with clear HST counterparts were identified. This data set is the deepest spectroscopic survey ever performed. In just over 100 h of integration time, it provides nearly an order of magnitude more spectroscopic redshifts compared to the data that has been accumulated on the UDF over the past decade. The depth and high quality of these datacubes enables new and detailed studies of the physical properties of the galaxy population and their environments over a large redshift range.

Context. One of the major science cases of the MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) integral field spectrograph is the detection of Lyman-alpha emitters at high redshifts. The on-going and planned deep fields observations will allow for one large sample of these sources. An efficient tool to perform blind detection of faint emitters in MUSE datacubes is a prerequisite of such an endeavor. Aims. Several line detection algorithms exist but their performance during the deepest MUSE exposures is hard to quantify, in particular with respect to their actual false detection rate, or purity. The aim of this work is to design and validate an algorithm that efficiently detects faint spatial-spectral emission signatures, while allowing for a stable false detection rate over the data cube and providing in the same time an automated and reliable estimation of the purity. Methods. The algorithm implements i) a nuisance removal part based on a continuum subtraction combining a discrete cosine transform and an iterative principal component analysis, ii) a detection part based on the local maxima of generalized likelihood ratio test statistics obtained for a set of spatial-spectral profiles of emission line emitters and iii) a purity estimation part, where the proportion of true emission lines is estimated from the data itself: the distribution of the local maxima in the "noise only" configuration is estimated from that of the local minima. Results. Results on simulated data cubes providing ground truth show that the method reaches its aims in terms of purity and completeness. When applied to the deep 30-hour exposure MUSE datacube in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, the algorithms allows for the confirmed detection of 133 intermediate redshifts galaxies and 248 Lyα emitters, including 86 sources with no HST (Hubble Space Telescope) counterpart. Conclusions. The algorithm fulfills its aims in terms of detection power and reliability. It is consequently implemented as a Python package whose code and documentation are available on GitHub and readthedocs.