Constraining C iii] emission in a sample of five luminous z = 5.7 galaxies

Journal Article · Sat Apr 01 04:00:00 EDT 2017 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/AA6482· OSTI ID:22869156

Ding, Jiani; Fan, Xiaohui; P Stark, Daniel; D McGreer, Ian ^[1]; Cai, Zheng ^[2]; Bian, Fuyan ^[3]; Jiang, Linhua ^[4]; E Robertson, Brant ^[5]; Siana, Brian ^[6]

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1. Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, 933 N Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ, 85721 (United States)
2. UCO/Lick Observatory, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064 (United States)
3. Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Australian National University, Cotter Road, Weston Creek, ACT 2611 (Australia)
4. Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, Beijing 100871 (China)
5. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
6. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Riverside, 900 University Avenue, Riverside, CA, 92521 (United States)

Recent observations have suggested that the C iii]λ1907/1909 emission lines could be alternative diagnostic lines for galaxies in the reionization epoch. We use the F128N narrowband filter on the Hubble Space Telescope’s (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) to search for C iii] emission in a sample of five galaxies at z = 5.7 in the Subaru Deep Field and the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Field. Using the F128N narrowband imaging, together with the broadband imaging, we do not detect C iii] emission for the five galaxies with J{sub AB} ranging from 24.10 to 27.00 in our sample. For the brightest galaxy J132416.13+274411.6 in our sample (z = 5.70, J{sub AB}=24.10), which has a significantly higher signal to noise, we report a C iii] flux of 3.34±1.81×10{sup −18} erg s{sup −1} cm{sup −2}, which places a stringent 3σ upper limit of 5.43×10{sup −18} erg s{sup −1} cm{sup −2} on C iii] flux and 6.57 Å on the C iii] equivalent width. Using the stacked image, we put a 3σ upper limit on the mean C iii] flux of 2.55×10{sup −18} erg s{sup −1} cm{sup −2} and a 3σ upper limit on the mean C iii] equivalent width of 4.20 Å for this sample of galaxies at z = 5.70. Combined with strong C iii] detection reported among high-z galaxies in the literature, our observations suggest that the equivalent widths of C iii] from galaxies at z > 5.70 exhibit a wide range of distribution. Our strong limits on C iii] emission could be used as a guide for future observations in the reionization epoch.

• OSTI ID: 22869156
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Letters Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 838; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
CAMERAS
DETECTION
EMISSION SPECTRA
FILTERS
GALAXIES
IMAGES
LUMINOSITY
RED SHIFT
SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO
STARS
TELESCOPES