A Lyman break galaxy in the epoch of reionization from Hubble Space Telescope grism spectroscopy

James E. Rhoads; Sangeeta Malhotra; Daniel Stern; Mark Dickinson; Norbert Pirzkal; Hyron Spinrad; Naveen Reddy; Nimish Hathi; Norman Grogin; Anton Koekemoer; Michael A. Peth; Seth Cohen; Zhenya Zheng; Tamas Budavari; Ignacio Ferreras; Jonathan P. Gardner; Caryl Gronwall; Zoltan Haiman; Martin Kümmel; Gerhardt Meurer; Leonidas Moustakas; Nino Panagia; Anna Pasquali; Kailash Sahu; Sperello Di Serego Alighieri; Rachel Somerville; Amber Straughn; Jeremy Walsh; Rogier Windhorst; Chun Xu; Haojing Yan

doi:10.1088/0004-637X/773/1/32

A Lyman break galaxy in the epoch of reionization from Hubble Space Telescope grism spectroscopy

James E. Rhoads, Sangeeta Malhotra, Daniel Stern, Mark Dickinson, Norbert Pirzkal, Hyron Spinrad, Naveen Reddy, Nimish Hathi, Norman Grogin, Anton Koekemoer, Michael A. Peth, Seth Cohen, Zhenya Zheng, Tamas Budavari, Ignacio Ferreras, Jonathan P. Gardner, Caryl Gronwall, Zoltan Haiman, Martin Kümmel, Gerhardt MeurerLeonidas Moustakas, Nino Panagia, Anna Pasquali, Kailash Sahu, Sperello Di Serego Alighieri, Rachel Somerville, Amber Straughn, Jeremy Walsh, Rogier Windhorst, Chun Xu, Haojing Yan

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

13 Scopus citations

Abstract

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 Å. The second confirmation is done with Keck + DEIMOS. The continuum is not clearly detected with ground-based spectra, but high wavelength resolution enables the Lyα emission line profile to be determined. We compare the line profile to composite line profiles at z = 4.5. The Lyα 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 Lyα is too attenuated by the neutral intergalactic medium to be detectable using traditional spectroscopy from the ground.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	32
Journal	Astrophysical Journal
Volume	773
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/773/1/32
State	Published - Aug 10 2013

Keywords

galaxies: evolution
galaxies: formation
galaxies: high-redshift

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Space and Planetary Science

Access to Document

10.1088/0004-637X/773/1/32

Cite this

Rhoads, J. E., Malhotra, S., Stern, D., Dickinson, M., Pirzkal, N., Spinrad, H., Reddy, N., Hathi, N., Grogin, N., Koekemoer, A., Peth, M. A., Cohen, S., Zheng, Z., Budavari, T., Ferreras, I., Gardner, J. P., Gronwall, C., Haiman, Z., Kümmel, M., ... Yan, H. (2013). A Lyman break galaxy in the epoch of reionization from Hubble Space Telescope grism spectroscopy. Astrophysical Journal, 773(1), Article 32. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/773/1/32

Rhoads, JE, Malhotra, S, Stern, D, Dickinson, M, Pirzkal, N, Spinrad, H, Reddy, N, Hathi, N, Grogin, N, Koekemoer, A, Peth, MA, Cohen, S, Zheng, Z, Budavari, T, Ferreras, I, Gardner, JP, Gronwall, C, Haiman, Z, Kümmel, M, Meurer, G, Moustakas, L, Panagia, N, Pasquali, A, Sahu, K, Di Serego Alighieri, S, Somerville, R, Straughn, A, Walsh, J, Windhorst, R, Xu, C & Yan, H 2013, 'A Lyman break galaxy in the epoch of reionization from Hubble Space Telescope grism spectroscopy', Astrophysical Journal, vol. 773, no. 1, 32. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/773/1/32

@article{2526692b765a4ed4b0300c1170293af5,

title = "A Lyman break galaxy in the epoch of reionization from Hubble Space Telescope grism spectroscopy",

abstract = "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 {\AA}. The second confirmation is done with Keck + DEIMOS. The continuum is not clearly detected with ground-based spectra, but high wavelength resolution enables the Lyα emission line profile to be determined. We compare the line profile to composite line profiles at z = 4.5. The Lyα 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 Lyα is too attenuated by the neutral intergalactic medium to be detectable using traditional spectroscopy from the ground.",

keywords = "galaxies: evolution, galaxies: formation, galaxies: high-redshift",

author = "Rhoads, {James E.} and Sangeeta Malhotra and Daniel Stern and Mark Dickinson and Norbert Pirzkal and Hyron Spinrad and Naveen Reddy and Nimish Hathi and Norman Grogin and Anton Koekemoer and Peth, {Michael A.} and Seth Cohen and Zhenya Zheng and Tamas Budavari and Ignacio Ferreras and Gardner, {Jonathan P.} and Caryl Gronwall and Zoltan Haiman and Martin K{\"u}mmel and Gerhardt Meurer and Leonidas Moustakas and Nino Panagia and Anna Pasquali and Kailash Sahu and {Di Serego Alighieri}, Sperello and Rachel Somerville and Amber Straughn and Jeremy Walsh and Rogier Windhorst and Chun Xu and Haojing Yan",

year = "2013",

month = aug,

day = "10",

doi = "10.1088/0004-637X/773/1/32",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "773",

journal = "Astrophysical Journal",

issn = "0004-637X",

publisher = "IOP Publishing Ltd.",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - A Lyman break galaxy in the epoch of reionization from Hubble Space Telescope grism spectroscopy

AU - Rhoads, James E.

AU - Malhotra, Sangeeta

AU - Stern, Daniel

AU - Dickinson, Mark

AU - Pirzkal, Norbert

AU - Spinrad, Hyron

AU - Reddy, Naveen

AU - Hathi, Nimish

AU - Grogin, Norman

AU - Koekemoer, Anton

AU - Peth, Michael A.

AU - Cohen, Seth

AU - Zheng, Zhenya

AU - Budavari, Tamas

AU - Ferreras, Ignacio

AU - Gardner, Jonathan P.

AU - Gronwall, Caryl

AU - Haiman, Zoltan

AU - Kümmel, Martin

AU - Meurer, Gerhardt

AU - Moustakas, Leonidas

AU - Panagia, Nino

AU - Pasquali, Anna

AU - Sahu, Kailash

AU - Di Serego Alighieri, Sperello

AU - Somerville, Rachel

AU - Straughn, Amber

AU - Walsh, Jeremy

AU - Windhorst, Rogier

AU - Xu, Chun

AU - Yan, Haojing

PY - 2013/8/10

Y1 - 2013/8/10

N2 - 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 Å. The second confirmation is done with Keck + DEIMOS. The continuum is not clearly detected with ground-based spectra, but high wavelength resolution enables the Lyα emission line profile to be determined. We compare the line profile to composite line profiles at z = 4.5. The Lyα 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 Lyα is too attenuated by the neutral intergalactic medium to be detectable using traditional spectroscopy from the ground.

AB - 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 Å. The second confirmation is done with Keck + DEIMOS. The continuum is not clearly detected with ground-based spectra, but high wavelength resolution enables the Lyα emission line profile to be determined. We compare the line profile to composite line profiles at z = 4.5. The Lyα 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 Lyα is too attenuated by the neutral intergalactic medium to be detectable using traditional spectroscopy from the ground.

KW - galaxies: evolution

KW - galaxies: formation

KW - galaxies: high-redshift

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84881187540&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84881187540&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1088/0004-637X/773/1/32

DO - 10.1088/0004-637X/773/1/32

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:84881187540

SN - 0004-637X

VL - 773

JO - Astrophysical Journal

JF - Astrophysical Journal

IS - 1

M1 - 32

ER -

A Lyman break galaxy in the epoch of reionization from Hubble Space Telescope grism spectroscopy

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this