Searching for z˜= 6 Objects with Deep ACS/WFC Parallel Observation

Details Searching for z˜= 6 Objects with Deep ACS/WFC Parallel Observation Searching for z˜= 6 Objects with Deep ACS/WFC Parallel Observation

Dec 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002aas...20114904y&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society Meeting 201, #149.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 35, p.574

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Recent results suggest that z˜= 6 marks the end of the reionization era. A large sample of objects at z˜= 6, therefore, will be of enormous importance, as it will enable us to observationally determine the exact epoch of the reionization and the sources that are responsible for it. With the HST Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) coming on line, we now have an unique opportunity to discover a significant number of objects at z˜= 6. The pure parallel mode implemented for the Wide Field Camera (WFC) has greatly enhanced this ability. We present our preliminary analysis of a deep ACS/WFC parallel field at |b|=74.4o. We find 30 plausible z˜= 6 candidates, all of which have S/N>7 in the F850LP-band. The major sources of contamination could be faint Galactic cool dwarfs, and we estimated that they would contribute at most 4 objects to our candidate list. We derived the cumulative number density of galaxies at 6.0<= z<= 6.5 as 2.3 arcmin-2 to a limit of 28.0 mag in the F850LP-band, which is slightly higher than our prediction. If this is not due to underestimated contamination rate, it could possibly imply that the faint-end slope of the z˜= 6 luminosity function is steeper than α =-1.6. Given the faintness of these candidates, spectroscopic identification is not feasible until the launch of the NGST, and imaging at longer wavelength is the only way to further confirm their nature in the next eight years. At the very least, our result suggests that galaxies with LWe acknowledge funding from NASA Grant NAG5-12460.

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