NEAR-INFRARED SURVEY OF THE GOODS-NORTH FIELD: SEARCH FOR LUMINOUS GALAXY CANDIDATES AT z {approx}> 6.5 {sup ,}
- Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science, Pasadena, CA 91101 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, 249-17 Caltech, 1201 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, P.O. Box 23-141, Taipei 10617, Taiwan (China)
We present near-infrared (NIR; J and K{sub s}) survey of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-North (GOODS-N) field. The publicly available imaging data were obtained using the MOIRCS instrument on the 8.2 m Subaru and the WIRCam instrument on the 3.6 m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). These observations fulfill a serious wavelength gap in the GOODS-N data, i.e., lack of deep NIR observations. We combine the Subaru/MOIRCS and CFHT/WIRCam archival data to generate deep J- and K{sub s}-band images, covering the full GOODS-N field ({approx}169 arcmin{sup 2}) to an AB magnitude limit of {approx}25 mag (3{sigma}). We applied z{sub 850}-band dropout color selection criteria, using the NIR data generated here. We have identified two possible Lyman break galaxy (LBG) candidates at z {approx}> 6.5 with J {approx}< 24.5. The first candidate is a likely LBG at z {approx_equal} 6.5 based on a weak spectral feature tentatively identified as Ly{alpha} line in the deep Keck/DEIMOS spectrum, while the second candidate is a possible LBG at z {approx_equal} 7 based on its photometric redshift. These z{sub 850}-dropout objects, if confirmed, are among the brightest such candidates found so far. At z {approx}> 6.5, their star formation rate is estimated as 100-200 M{sub Sun} yr{sup -1}. If they continue to form stars at this rate, they assemble a stellar mass of {approx}5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 10} M{sub Sun} after about 400 million years, becoming the progenitors of massive galaxies observed at z {approx_equal} 5. We study the implication of the z{sub 850}-band dropout candidates discovered here, in constraining the bright end of the luminosity function and understanding the nature of high-redshift galaxies.
- OSTI ID:
- 22092286
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 757, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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