A "silver bullet" for the sources of reionization

Details A "silver bullet" for the sources of reionization A "silver bullet" for the sources of reionization

Jul 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007hst..prop11099b&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #11099. Cycle 16

Computer Science

Scientific paper

Recent discoveries of z>6 galaxies have given us the first glimpse of the Universe shortly after the era of reionization. The questions arose whether these first galaxies can be made responsible for the reionization process, and how long did it last. Neither observations nor theory provide a clean answer. In particular observations give results that are barely mutually consistent and need to be further tested. Observing high redshift z>7 sources is in general difficult, mostly due to the high luminosity distance to these objects, and partly due to the lower expected stellar masses compared to objects at moderate redshifts. We propose to use one of the most massive, merging cluster 1E0657-56 z=0.295 as a cosmic telescopes to efficiently probe the high-redshift universe. The gravitational potential well of this cluster provides several magnitudes of magnification, enabling study of intrinsically lower luminosity galaxies.As we discuss in the proposal, due to its highly elongated mass distribution and ideal redshift the bullet cluster is a prime candidate for this study. We propose deep NICMOS and WFPC2 observations; with much reduced observing time compared to e.g. NICMOS UDF we expect an order of magnitude more ~5 candidates z>7 objects. They will also likely be multiply imaged, and since the geometry of images depends upon the redshift, we will be able to confirm their nature, thereby not requiring often prohibitive at these magnitudes spectroscopic follow-up. This will enable us to count high-redshift sources and constrain their luminosity function; a task made possible with the help of gravitational lensing even in the pre-JWST era.;

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