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Title: RELICS: The Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey and the Brightest High-z Galaxies

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
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  1. Space Telescope Science Inst., Baltimore, MD (United States)
  2. Leiden Univ. (Netherlands). Leiden Observatory
  3. Univ. of California, Davis, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
  4. Univ. of Geneva (Switzerland). Geneva Observatory
  5. Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States). Dept. of Astronomy
  6. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States). Dept. of Astronomy
  7. Univ. of Melbourne (Australia). School of Physics
  8. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA (United States)
  9. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  10. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  11. Space Telescope Science Inst., Baltimore, MD (United States); Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  12. Univ. of South Carolina, Columbia, SC (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  13. California Institute of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States). Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
  14. Academia Sinica, Taipei (Taiwan). Inst. of Astronomy and Astrophysics
  15. Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Padova (Italy). Osservatorio astronomico di Padova
  16. Ben-Gurion Univ. of the Negev, Beer-Sheva (Israel). Physics Dept.

Massive foreground galaxy clusters magnify and distort the light of objects behind them, permitting a view into both the extremely distant and intrinsically faint galaxy populations. Here we present the $$z\sim 6\mbox{--}8$$ candidate high-redshift galaxies from the Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey (RELICS), a Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescope survey of 41 massive galaxy clusters spanning an area of ≈200 arcmin2. These clusters were selected to be excellent lenses, and we find similar high-redshift sample sizes and magnitude distributions as the Cluster Lensing And Supernova survey with Hubble (CLASH). We discover 257, 57, and eight candidate galaxies at z ~ 6, 7, and 8 respectively, (322 in total). The observed (lensed) magnitudes of the z ~ 6 candidates are as bright as AB mag ~23, making them among the brightest known at these redshifts, comparable with discoveries from much wider, blank-field surveys. RELICS demonstrates the efficiency of using strong gravitational lenses to produce high-redshift samples in the epoch of reionization. These brightly observed galaxies are excellent targets for follow-up study with current and future observatories, including the James Webb Space Telescope.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1660524
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL--738179; 891253
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal (Online) Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 889; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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