Discovery of a Very Bright Strongly-Lensed Galaxy Candidate at z ≈ 7.6
Abstract
Using Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Spitzer IRAC imaging, we report the discovery of a very bright strongly-lensed Lyman break galaxy (LBG) candidate at redshift z 7.6. The candidate shows a strong z - J break of at least 2.2 magnitudes and is completely undetected (< 1 sigma) in deep HST Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) optical data. The ACS, NICMOS, and IRAC broadband photometry are all consistent with a LBG at high redshift. By employing a strong lensing model of the foreground galaxy cluster, we deproject the galaxy candidate to its source plane and examine its intrinsic properties. The high detection significance (> 8 sigma) of the candidate and the remarkable consistency of the morphology in both the J and H bands provide strong evidence that the source is real and not a spurious detection. The source plane deprojection shows that the star formation is occurring in compact knots. We fit the intrinsic broadband HST and Spitzer IRAC fluxes with stellar population synthesis models to constrain the stellar mass, stellar age, star-formation rate, and dust content of the galaxy.
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2007
- Bibcode:
- 2007AAS...211.3505B