2,311 research outputs found
Spitzer IRAC confirmation of z_850-dropout galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: stellar masses and ages at z~7
Using Spitzer IRAC mid-infrared imaging from the Great Observatories Origins
Deep Survey, we study z_850-dropout sources in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field.
After carefully removing contaminating flux from foreground sources, we clearly
detect two z_850-dropouts at 3.6 micron and 4.5 micron, while two others are
marginally detected. The mid-infrared fluxes strongly support their
interpretation as galaxies at z~7, seen when the Universe was only 750 Myr old.
The IRAC observations allow us for the first time to constrain the rest-frame
optical colors, stellar masses, and ages of the highest redshift galaxies.
Fitting stellar population models to the spectral energy distributions, we find
photometric redshifts in the range 6.7-7.4, rest-frame colors U-V=0.2-0.4,
V-band luminosities L_V=0.6-3 x 10^10 L_sun, stellar masses 1-10 x 10^9 M_sun,
stellar ages 50-200 Myr, star formation rates up to ~25 M_sun/yr, and low
reddening A_V<0.4. Overall, the z=7 galaxies appear substantially less massive
and evolved than Lyman break galaxies or Distant Red Galaxies at z=2-3, but
fairly similar to recently identified systems at z=5-6. The stellar mass
density inferred from our z=7 sample is rho* = 1.6^{+1.6}_{-0.8} x 10^6 M_sun
Mpc^-3 (to 0.3 L*(z=3)), in apparent agreement with recent cosmological
hydrodynamic simulations, but we note that incompleteness and sample variance
may introduce larger uncertainties. The ages of the two most massive galaxies
suggest they formed at z>8, during the era of cosmic reionization, but the star
formation rate density derived from their stellar masses and ages is not nearly
sufficient to reionize the universe. The simplest explanation for this
deficiency is that lower-mass galaxies beyond our detection limit reionized the
universe.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, emulateapj, Accepted for publication in ApJ
Letter
The Dearth of z~10 Galaxies in all HST Legacy Fields -- The Rapid Evolution of the Galaxy Population in the First 500 Myr
We present an analysis of all prime HST legacy fields spanning >800 arcmin^2
for the search of z~10 galaxy candidates and the study of their UV luminosity
function (LF). In particular, we present new z~10 candidates selected from the
full Hubble Frontier Field (HFF) dataset. Despite the addition of these new
fields, we find a low abundance of z~10 candidates with only 9 reliable sources
identified in all prime HST datasets that include the HUDF09/12, the HUDF/XDF,
all the CANDELS fields, and now the HFF survey. Based on this comprehensive
search, we find that the UV luminosity function decreases by one order of
magnitude from z~8 to z~10 at all luminosities over a four magnitude range.
This also implies a decrease of the cosmic star-formation rate density by an
order of magnitude within 170 Myr from z~8 to z~10. We show that this
accelerated evolution compared to lower redshift can entirely be explained by
the fast build-up of the dark matter halo mass function at z>8. Consequently,
the predicted UV LFs from several models of galaxy formation are in good
agreement with this observed trend, even though the measured UV LF lies at the
low end of model predictions. In particular, the number of only 9 observed
candidate galaxies is lower, by ~50%, than predicted by galaxy evolution
models. The difference is generally still consistent within the Poisson and
cosmic variance uncertainties. However, essentially all models predict larger
numbers than observed. We discuss the implications of these results in light of
the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope mission, which is poised to find much
larger samples of z~10 galaxies as well as their progenitors at less than 400
Myr after the Big Bang.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, minor updates to match accepted versio
Extremely Small Sizes for Faint z~2-8 Galaxies in the Hubble Frontier Fields: A Key Input For Establishing their Volume Density and UV Emissivity
We provide the first observational constraints on the sizes of the faintest
galaxies lensed by the Hubble Frontier Fields (HFF) clusters. Ionizing
radiation from faint galaxies likely drives cosmic reionization, and the HFF
initiative provides a key opportunity to find such galaxies. Yet, we cannot
really assess their ionizing emissivity without a robust measurement of their
sizes, since this is key to quantifying both their prevalence and the faint-end
slope to the UV luminosity function. Here we provide the first such size
constraints with 2 new techniques. The first utilizes the fact that the
detectability of highly-magnified galaxies as a function of shear is very
dependent on a galaxy's size. Only the most compact galaxies will remain
detectable in regions of high shear (vs. a larger detectable size range for low
shear), a phenomenon we carefully quantify using simulations. Remarkably,
however, no correlation is found between the surface density of faint galaxies
and the predicted shear, using 87 faint high-magnification mu>10 z~2-8 galaxies
seen behind the first 4 HFF clusters. This can only be the case if such faint
(~-15 mag) galaxies have significantly smaller sizes than luminous galaxies. We
constrain their half-light radii to be <~30 mas (<160-240 pc). As a 2nd size
probe, we rotate and stack 26 faint high-magnification sources along the major
shear axis. Less elongation is found than even for objects with an intrinsic
half-light radius of 10 mas. Together these results indicate that extremely
faint z~2-8 galaxies have near point-source profiles in the HFF dataset
(half-light radii conservatively <30 mas and likely 5-10 mas). These results
suggest smaller completeness corrections and hence much lower volume densities
for faint z~2-8 galaxies and shallower faint-end slopes than have been derived
in many recent studies (by factors of ~2-3 and by dalpha>~0.1-0.3).Comment: 19 pages, 15 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Ap
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