Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
1995-06-06
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
9 pages (text) plus 4 figures, uuencoded compressed postscript format, to appear in The Astrophysical Journal (Letters); also
Scientific paper
10.1086/309632
We present the first results from a near-infrared narrow-band search for primeval galaxies (PGs) using the Keck 10~m telescope. We have targeted our fields for three QSOs and one radio galaxy at redshifts $z = 2.28$ to $4.70$. We selected narrow-band filters in the $K$-band centered on strong emision lines at the redshift of the targets. We reach limiting fluxes between $1.6\times 10^{-17}$~erg~s$^{-1}$~cm$^{-2}$ and $1.0\times 10^{-16}$~erg~s$^{-1}$~cm$^{-2}$, and cover a total area of $\sim 4$~arcmin$^2$. At the redshifts of interest, these flux limits correspond to typical restframe line luminosities of $\sim 10^{42} - 10^{43}$~erg~s$^{-1}$, unobscured star formation rates of $\sim 1 - 100$ $M_\odot$~yr$^{-1}$, and a sampled comoving volume of several tens of Mpc$^3$. We have found no candidate PGs at a $2\sigma$ confidence level. We demonstrate that for moderate dust absorption ($A_V \gsim 2^m$) in a simple dust-screen model, our preliminary survey puts a strong constraint on intrinsic PG luminosities during an intial burst of star formation. In the case of the QSOs, we have used PSF-subtraction to search for the presence of faint, extended line emission surrounding these radio-quiet AGNs. We find no evidence for extended emission down to $3.7 \times 10^{-17}$~erg~s$^{-1}$~cm$^{-2}$. This imposes limits on the reprocessed fraction of the QSO continuum emission ranging between $0.02$\% and $0.29$\%; if beaming effects are not important, then this implies similarly small covering factors for clouds optically thick to the QSO continuum emission.
Djorgovski Stanislav G.
Pahre Michael A.
No associations
LandOfFree
A Near-Infrared Search for Line Emission from Protogalaxies Using the W. M. Keck Telescope does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with A Near-Infrared Search for Line Emission from Protogalaxies Using the W. M. Keck Telescope, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and A Near-Infrared Search for Line Emission from Protogalaxies Using the W. M. Keck Telescope will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-53974