Through the Looking Glass: Bright, Highly Magnified Galaxy Candidates at z ~ 7 behind A1703
Abstract
We report the discovery of seven strongly lensed Lyman-break galaxy (LBG) candidates at z ~ 7 detected in Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) imaging of A1703. The brightest candidate, called A1703-zD1, has an observed (lensed) magnitude of 24.0 AB (26σ) in the WFC3/IR F160W band, making it 0.2 mag brighter than the z 850-dropout candidate recently reported behind the Bullet Cluster and 0.7 mag brighter than the previously brightest known z ~ 7.6 galaxy, A1689-zD1. With a cluster magnification of ~9, this source has an intrinsic magnitude of H 160 = 26.4 AB, a strong z 850 - J 125 break of 1.7 mag, and a photometric redshift of z ~ 6.7. Additionally, we find six other bright LBG candidates with H 160-band magnitudes of 24.9-26.4, photometric redshifts z ~ 6.4 - 8.8, and magnifications μ ~ 3-40. Stellar population fits to the Advanced Camera for Surveys, WFC3/IR, and Spitzer/Infrared Array Camera data for A1703-zD1 and A1703-zD4 yield stellar masses (0.7 - 3.0) × 109 M ⊙, stellar ages 5-180 Myr, and star formation rates ~7.8 M ⊙ yr-1, and low reddening with AV <= 0.7. The source-plane reconstruction of the exceptionally bright candidate A1703-zD1 exhibits an extended structure, spanning ~4 kpc in the z ~ 6.7 source plane, and shows three resolved star-forming knots of radius r ~ 0.4 kpc.
Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy under NASA contract NAS5-26555. Based on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under NASA contract 1407.- Publication:
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The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- March 2012
- DOI:
- 10.1088/0004-637X/747/1/3
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1104.2035
- Bibcode:
- 2012ApJ...747....3B
- Keywords:
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- galaxies: clusters: individual: A1703;
- galaxies: high-redshift;
- gravitational lensing: strong;
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 11 pages, 8 figures, 2 tables