Spectroscopic confirmation of faint lyman break galaxies near redshift five in the hubble ultra deep field

James E. Rhoads; Sangeeta Malhotra; Norbert Pirzkal; Mark Dickinson; Seth Cohen; Norman Grogin; Nimish Hathi; Chun Xu; Ignacio Ferreras; Caryl Gronwall; Anton Koekemoer; Martin Kümmel; Gerhardt Meurer; Nino Panagia; Anna Pasquali; Russell Ryan; Amber Straughn; Jeremy Walsh; Rogier Windhorst; Hao Jing Yan

doi:10.1088/0004-637X/697/1/942

Spectroscopic confirmation of faint lyman break galaxies near redshift five in the hubble ultra deep field

James E. Rhoads, Sangeeta Malhotra, Norbert Pirzkal, Mark Dickinson, Seth Cohen, Norman Grogin, Nimish Hathi, Chun Xu, Ignacio Ferreras, Caryl Gronwall, Anton Koekemoer, Martin Kümmel, Gerhardt Meurer, Nino Panagia, Anna Pasquali, Russell Ryan, Amber Straughn, Jeremy Walsh, Rogier Windhorst, Hao Jing Yan

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

34 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present the faintest spectroscopically confirmed sample of z 5 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) to date. The sample is based on slitless grism spectra of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field region from the Grism ACS Program for Extragalactic Science (GRAPES) and Probing Evolution and Reionization Spectroscopically (PEARS) projects, using the G800L grism on the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys. We report here confirmations of 39 galaxies, preselected as candidate LBGs using photometric selection criteria. We compare a "traditional" V-dropout selection, based on the work of Giavalisco et al., to a more liberal one (with V - i > 0.9), and find that the traditional criteria are about 64% complete and 81% reliable. We also study the Lyα emission properties of our sample. We find that Lyα emission is detected in 1/4 of the sample, and that the liberal V-dropout color selection includes 55% of previously published line-selected Lyα sources. Finally, we examine our stacked two-dimensional spectra. We demonstrate that strong, spatially extended (1″) Lyα emission is not a generic property of these LBGs, but that a modest extension of the Lyα photosphere (compared to the starlight) may be present in those galaxies with prominent Lyα emission.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	942-949
Number of pages	8
Journal	Astrophysical Journal
Volume	697
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/697/1/942
State	Published - 2009

Keywords

Galaxies: formation
Galaxies: high-redshift
Galaxies: starburst

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Astronomy and Astrophysics
Space and Planetary Science

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10.1088/0004-637X/697/1/942

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Rhoads, J. E., Malhotra, S., Pirzkal, N., Dickinson, M., Cohen, S., Grogin, N., Hathi, N., Xu, C., Ferreras, I., Gronwall, C., Koekemoer, A., Kümmel, M., Meurer, G., Panagia, N., Pasquali, A., Ryan, R., Straughn, A., Walsh, J., Windhorst, R., & Yan, H. J. (2009). Spectroscopic confirmation of faint lyman break galaxies near redshift five in the hubble ultra deep field. Astrophysical Journal, 697(1), 942-949. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/697/1/942

Rhoads, JE, Malhotra, S, Pirzkal, N, Dickinson, M, Cohen, S, Grogin, N, Hathi, N, Xu, C, Ferreras, I, Gronwall, C, Koekemoer, A, Kümmel, M, Meurer, G, Panagia, N, Pasquali, A, Ryan, R, Straughn, A, Walsh, J, Windhorst, R & Yan, HJ 2009, 'Spectroscopic confirmation of faint lyman break galaxies near redshift five in the hubble ultra deep field', Astrophysical Journal, vol. 697, no. 1, pp. 942-949. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/697/1/942

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abstract = "We present the faintest spectroscopically confirmed sample of z 5 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) to date. The sample is based on slitless grism spectra of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field region from the Grism ACS Program for Extragalactic Science (GRAPES) and Probing Evolution and Reionization Spectroscopically (PEARS) projects, using the G800L grism on the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys. We report here confirmations of 39 galaxies, preselected as candidate LBGs using photometric selection criteria. We compare a {"}traditional{"} V-dropout selection, based on the work of Giavalisco et al., to a more liberal one (with V - i > 0.9), and find that the traditional criteria are about 64% complete and 81% reliable. We also study the Lyα emission properties of our sample. We find that Lyα emission is detected in 1/4 of the sample, and that the liberal V-dropout color selection includes 55% of previously published line-selected Lyα sources. Finally, we examine our stacked two-dimensional spectra. We demonstrate that strong, spatially extended (1″) Lyα emission is not a generic property of these LBGs, but that a modest extension of the Lyα photosphere (compared to the starlight) may be present in those galaxies with prominent Lyα emission.",

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AU - Rhoads, James E.

AU - Malhotra, Sangeeta

AU - Pirzkal, Norbert

AU - Dickinson, Mark

AU - Cohen, Seth

AU - Grogin, Norman

AU - Hathi, Nimish

AU - Xu, Chun

AU - Ferreras, Ignacio

AU - Gronwall, Caryl

AU - Koekemoer, Anton

AU - Kümmel, Martin

AU - Meurer, Gerhardt

AU - Panagia, Nino

AU - Pasquali, Anna

AU - Ryan, Russell

AU - Straughn, Amber

AU - Walsh, Jeremy

AU - Windhorst, Rogier

AU - Yan, Hao Jing

PY - 2009

Y1 - 2009

N2 - We present the faintest spectroscopically confirmed sample of z 5 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) to date. The sample is based on slitless grism spectra of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field region from the Grism ACS Program for Extragalactic Science (GRAPES) and Probing Evolution and Reionization Spectroscopically (PEARS) projects, using the G800L grism on the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys. We report here confirmations of 39 galaxies, preselected as candidate LBGs using photometric selection criteria. We compare a "traditional" V-dropout selection, based on the work of Giavalisco et al., to a more liberal one (with V - i > 0.9), and find that the traditional criteria are about 64% complete and 81% reliable. We also study the Lyα emission properties of our sample. We find that Lyα emission is detected in 1/4 of the sample, and that the liberal V-dropout color selection includes 55% of previously published line-selected Lyα sources. Finally, we examine our stacked two-dimensional spectra. We demonstrate that strong, spatially extended (1″) Lyα emission is not a generic property of these LBGs, but that a modest extension of the Lyα photosphere (compared to the starlight) may be present in those galaxies with prominent Lyα emission.

AB - We present the faintest spectroscopically confirmed sample of z 5 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) to date. The sample is based on slitless grism spectra of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field region from the Grism ACS Program for Extragalactic Science (GRAPES) and Probing Evolution and Reionization Spectroscopically (PEARS) projects, using the G800L grism on the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys. We report here confirmations of 39 galaxies, preselected as candidate LBGs using photometric selection criteria. We compare a "traditional" V-dropout selection, based on the work of Giavalisco et al., to a more liberal one (with V - i > 0.9), and find that the traditional criteria are about 64% complete and 81% reliable. We also study the Lyα emission properties of our sample. We find that Lyα emission is detected in 1/4 of the sample, and that the liberal V-dropout color selection includes 55% of previously published line-selected Lyα sources. Finally, we examine our stacked two-dimensional spectra. We demonstrate that strong, spatially extended (1″) Lyα emission is not a generic property of these LBGs, but that a modest extension of the Lyα photosphere (compared to the starlight) may be present in those galaxies with prominent Lyα emission.

KW - Galaxies: formation

KW - Galaxies: high-redshift

KW - Galaxies: starburst

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JO - Astrophysical Journal

JF - Astrophysical Journal

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Spectroscopic confirmation of faint lyman break galaxies near redshift five in the hubble ultra deep field

Abstract

Keywords

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