Computer Science – Performance
Scientific paper
Jul 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008hst..prop11563i&link_type=abstract
HST Proposal ID #11563. Cycle 17
Computer Science
Performance
Scientific paper
The first generations of galaxies were assembled around redshifts z 7-10+, just 500-800 Myr after recombination, in the heart of the reionization of the universe. We know very little about galaxies in this period. Despite great effort with HST and other telescopes, less than 15 galaxies have been reliably detected so far at z>7, contrasting with the 1000 galaxies detected to date at z 6, just 200-400 Myr later, near the end of the reionization epoch. WFC3 IR can dramatically change this situation, enabling derivation of the galaxy luminosity function and its shape at z 7-8 to well below L*, measurement of the UV luminosity density at z 7-8 and z 8-9, and estimates of the contribution of galaxies to reionization at these epochs, as well as characterization of their properties {sizes, structure, colors}. A quantitative leap in our understanding of early galaxies, and the timescales of their buildup, requires a total sample of 100 galaxies at z 7-8 to 29 AB mag. We can achieve this with 192 WFC3 IR orbits on three disjoint fields {minimizing cosmic variance}: the HUDF and the two nearby deep fields of the HUDF05. Our program uses three WFC3 IR filters, and leverages over 600 orbits of existing ACS data, to identify, with low contamination, a large sample of over 100 objects at z 7-8, a very useful sample of 23 at z 8-9, and limits at z 10. By careful placement of the WFC3 IR and parallel ACS pointings, we also enhance the optical ACS imaging on the HUDF and a HUDF05 field. We stress {1} the need to go deep, which is paramount to define L*, the shape, and the slope alpha of the luminosity function {LF} at these high redshifts; and {2} the far superior performance of our strategy, compared with the use of strong lensing clusters, in detecting significant samples of faint z 7-8 galaxies to derive their luminosity function and UV ionizing flux. Our recent z 7.4 NICMOS results show that wide-area IR surveys, even of GOODS-like depth, simply do not reach faint enough at z 7-9 to meet the LF and UV flux objectives. In the spirit of the HDF and the HUDF, we will waive any proprietary period, and will also deliver the reduced data to STScI. The proposed data will provide a Legacy resource of great value for a wide range of archival science investigations of galaxies at redshifts z 2-9. The data are likely to remain the deepest IR/optical images until JWST is launched, and will provide sources for spectroscopic followup by JWST, ALMA and EVLA.;
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