A LYMAN BREAK GALAXY IN THE EPOCH OF REIONIZATION FROM HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE GRISM SPECTROSCOPY

Journal Article · Sat Aug 10 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/773/1/32· OSTI ID:22140287

Rhoads, James E.; Malhotra, Sangeeta; Cohen, Seth; Zhenya, Zheng ^[1]; Stern, Daniel ^[2]; Dickinson, Mark ^[3]; Pirzkal, Norbert; Grogin, Norman; Koekemoer, Anton; Peth, Michael A. ^[4]; Spinrad, Hyron ^[5]; Reddy, Naveen ^[6]; Hathi, Nimish ^[7]; Budavari, Tamas ^[8]; Ferreras, Ignacio ^[9]; Gardner, Jonathan P. ^[10]; Gronwall, Caryl ^[11]; Haiman, Zoltan ^[12]; Kuemmel, Martin ^[13]; Meurer, Gerhardt ^[14] ; others, and

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1. School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287 (United States)
2. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
3. National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, AZ (United States)
4. Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD (United States)
5. University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
6. University of California, Riverside, CA (United States)
7. Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Pasadena, CA (United States)
8. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD (United States)
9. Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT (United Kingdom)
10. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Astrophysics Science Division, Observational Cosmology Laboratory, Code 665, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
11. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, and Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (United States)
12. Columbia University, New York, NY (United States)
13. Universitaets-Sternwarte Muenchen, Scheinerstr. 1, D-81679 Muenchen (Germany)
14. International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, University of Western Australia, M468, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009 (Australia)

We present observations of a luminous galaxy at z = 6.573-the end of the reionization epoch-which has been spectroscopically confirmed twice. The first spectroscopic confirmation comes from slitless Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys grism spectra from the PEARS survey (Probing Evolution And Reionization Spectroscopically), which show a dramatic continuum break in the spectrum at rest frame 1216 A. The second confirmation is done with Keck + DEIMOS. The continuum is not clearly detected with ground-based spectra, but high wavelength resolution enables the Ly{alpha} emission line profile to be determined. We compare the line profile to composite line profiles at z = 4.5. The Ly{alpha} line profile shows no signature of a damping wing attenuation, confirming that the intergalactic gas is ionized at z = 6.57. Spectra of Lyman breaks at yet higher redshifts will be possible using comparably deep observations with IR-sensitive grisms, even at redshifts where Ly{alpha} is too attenuated by the neutral intergalactic medium to be detectable using traditional spectroscopy from the ground.

• OSTI ID: 22140287
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 773, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
ATTENUATION
CAMERAS
EMISSION
EVOLUTION
GALAXIES
PROBES
RED SHIFT
RESOLUTION
SPACE
SPACE VEHICLES
SPECTRA
SPECTROSCOPY
TELESCOPES
WAVELENGTHS