A Lyman Break Galaxy Candidate at z ~ 9
Abstract
We report the discovery of a z ~ 9 Lyman break galaxy candidate, selected from the NICMOS Parallel Imaging Survey as a J-dropout with J110 - H160 = 1.7. Spitzer/IRAC photometry reveals that the galaxy has a blue H160 - 3.6 μm color and a spectral break between 3.6 and 4.5 μm. We interpret this break as the Balmer break and derive a best-fit photometric redshift of z ~ 9. We use Monte Carlo simulations to test the significance of this photometric redshift, and we show that there is a 96% probability of z >= 7. We estimate that the lower limit to the comoving number density of such galaxies at z ~ 9 is phi > 3.8 × 10-6 Mpc-3. If the high redshift of this galaxy is confirmed, this will indicate that the luminous end of the rest-frame UV luminosity function has not evolved substantially from z ~ 9 to z ~ 3. Still, some small degeneracy remains between this z ~ 9 model and models at z ~ 2-3 deep optical imaging (reaching IAB ~ 29) can rule out the lower z models.
This work is based in part on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA. Support for this work was provided by NASA through an award issued by JPL/Caltech. This work is also based in part on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with proposals 9484, 9865, 10226, and 10899.- Publication:
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The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- June 2008
- DOI:
- 10.1086/589944
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0805.1228
- Bibcode:
- 2008ApJ...680L..97H
- Keywords:
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- galaxies: evolution;
- galaxies: formation;
- galaxies: high-redshift;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- Accepted to ApJ Letters