Other
Scientific paper
Jan 2012
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21933106a&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #331.06
Other
Scientific paper
It is likely that intergalactic hydrogen was reionized by redshifts of 6 < z < 10, but it is not known whether the flux density of UV photons from the earliest galaxies was sufficient to do so. Measurements of the faint end slope of the luminosity function at these redshifts can help to address this question. I explore the use of the densest galaxy fields to lens faint objects into detectability, increasing source counts and providing improved constraints on dlog N / dlog L. First, I present galaxy spectroscopy for the first two dense beams identified from the SDSS. We have now confirmed that these beams have integrated masses of 3-4 x 1015 solar masses, surpassing even the most massive single cluster lensing fields. This increased mass should result in 50-1000% more detected sources at z > 7 than other current methods with equivalent exposure time. Second, I compare the high-redshift detection efficiencies of lensing and blank fields including realistic assumptions for the intrinsic sizes and morphologies of sources at z > 7. We find that there are heretofore uncorrected biases introduced by lensing due to the difficulty of detecting faint, highly elongated objects at high magnification. To interpret high-redshift, magnified number counts correctly, incompleteness due to this bias must be addressed with lensing simulations. The correction for incompleteness near the detection limit may exceed a factor of ten. Including finite source size and realistic shape assumptions, luminosity function slopes must be steeper than -dlog N / dlog L 2 at the faint end for cosmic telescopes to surpass blank field surveys in z > 7 detection efficiency. Prepared by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.
Ammons Stephen
French Debbie
Keeton Charles R.
Wong Kenneth C.
Zabludoff Ann I.
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