No Arabic abstract
We present the Super Eight galaxies - a set of very luminous, high-redshift ($7.1<z<8.0$) galaxy candidates found in Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies (BoRG) Survey fields. The original sample includes eight galaxies that are $Y$-band dropout objects with $H$-band magnitudes of $m_H<25.5$. Four of these objects were originally reported in Calvi et al. 2016. Combining new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) WFC3/F814W imaging and $Spitzer$ IRAC data with archival imaging from BoRG and other surveys, we explore the properties of these galaxies. Photometric redshift fitting places six of these galaxies in the redshift range of $7.1<z<8.0$, resulting in three new high-redshift galaxies and confirming three of the four high-redshift galaxy candidates from Calvi et al. 2016. We calculate the half-light radii of the Super Eight galaxies using the HST F160W filter and find that the Super Eight sizes are in line with typical evolution of size with redshift. The Super Eights have a mean mass of log(M$_*$/M$_odot$) $sim10$, which is typical for sources in this luminosity range. Finally, we place our sample on the UV $zsim8$ luminosity function and find that the Super Eight number density is consistent with other surveys in this magnitude and redshift range.
We build a Spitzer IRAC complete catalog of objects, obtained by complementing the $K_mathrm{s}$-band selected UltraVISTA catalog with objects detected in IRAC only. With the aim of identifying massive (i.e., $log(M_*/M_odot)>11$) galaxies at $4<z<7$, we consider the systematic effects on the measured photometric redshifts from the introduction of an old and dusty SED template and from the introduction of a bayesian prior taking into account the brightness of the objects, as well as the systematic effects from different star formation histories (SFHs) and from nebular emission lines in the recovery of stellar population parameters. We show that our results are most affected by the bayesian luminosity prior, while nebular emission lines and SFHs only introduce a small dispersion in the measurements. Specifically, the number of $4<z<7$ galaxies ranges from 52 to 382 depending on the adopted configuration. Using these results we investigate, for the first time, the evolution of the massive end of the stellar mass functions (SMFs) at $4<z<7$. Given the rarity of very massive galaxies in the early universe, major contributions to the total error budget come from cosmic variance and poisson noise. The SMF obtained without the introduction of the bayesian luminosity prior does not show any evolution from $zsim6.5$ to $zsim 3.5$, implying that massive galaxies could already be present when the Universe was $sim0.9$~Gyr old. However, the introduction of the bayesian luminosity prior reduces the number of $z>4$ galaxies with best fit masses $log(M_*/M_odot)>11$ by 83%, implying a rapid growth of very massive galaxies in the first 1.5 Gyr of cosmic history. From the stellar-mass complete sample, we identify one candidate of a very massive ($log(M_*/M_odot)sim11.5$), quiescent galaxy at $zsim5.4$, with MIPS $24mu$m detection suggesting the presence of a powerful obscured AGN.
We have exploited the new, deep, near-infrared UltraVISTA imaging of the COSMOS field, in tandem with deep optical and mid-infrared imaging, to conduct a new search for luminous galaxies at redshifts z ~ 7. The unique multi-wavelength dataset provided by VISTA, CFHT, Subaru, HST and Spitzer over a common area of 1 deg^2 has allowed us to select galaxy candidates at z > 6.5 by searching first for Y+J-detected (< 25 AB mag) objects which are undetected in the CFHT+HST optical data. This sample was then refined using a photometric redshift fitting code, enabling the rejection of lower-redshift galaxy contaminants and cool galactic M,L,T dwarf stars.The final result of this process is a small sample of (at most) ten credible galaxy candidates at z > 6.5 which we present in this paper. The first four of these appear to be robust galaxies at z > 6.5, and fitting to their stacked SED yields z = 6.98+-0.05 with a stellar mass M* = 5x10^9 Msun, and rest-frame UV spectral slope beta = -2.0+-0.2. The next three are also good candidates for z > 6.5 galaxies, but the possibility that they are low-redshift galaxies or dwarf stars cannot be excluded. Our final subset of three additional candidates is afflicted not only by potential dwarf-star contamination, but also contains objects likely to lie at redshifts just below z = 6.5. We show that the three even-brighter z > 7 galaxy candidates reported in the COSMOS field by Capak et al. (2011) in fact all lie at z ~ 1.5-3.5. Consequently the new z ~ 7 galaxies reported here are the first credible z ~ 7 Lyman-break galaxies discovered in the COSMOS field and, as the most UV-luminous discovered to date at these redshifts, are prime targets for deep follow-up spectroscopy. We explore their physical properties, and briefly consider the implications of their inferred number density for the form of the galaxy luminosity function at z = 7.
We investigate the properties of the extinction curve in the rest-frame UV for a sample of 34 UV-luminous galaxies at 2 < z < 2.5, selected from the FORS Deep Field (FDF) spectroscopic survey. A new parametric description of the rest-frame UV spectral energy distribution is adopted; its sensitivity to properties of the stellar populations or of dust attenuation is established with the use of combined stellar population and radiative transfer models. The distribution of the z ~ 2 UV-luminous FDF galaxies in several diagnostic diagrams shows that their extinction curves range between those typical of the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds (SMC and LMC, respectively). For the majority of strongly reddened objects having a UV continuum slope beta > -0.4 a significant 2175 A absorption feature is inferred, indicating an LMC-like extinction curve. On the other hand, the UV continua of the least reddened objects are mostly consistent with SMC-like extinction curves, lacking a significant 2175 A bump, as for the Calzetti et al. sample of local starbursts. Furthermore, the most opaque (beta ~ 0) UV-luminous galaxies tend to be among the most metal rich, most massive, and largest systems at z ~ 2. The presence of the UV bump does not seem to depend on the total metallicity, as given by the equivalent width (EW) of the C IV doublet. Conversely, it seems to be associated with large EWs of prominent interstellar low-ionisation absorption lines, suggesting a link between the strength of the UV bump and the topology of the interstellar medium of the most evolved UV-luminous, massive galaxies at z ~ 2.
We make use of ALMA continuum observations of $15$ luminous Lyman-break galaxies at $z$$sim$$7$$-$$8$ to probe their dust-obscured star-formation. These observations are sensitive enough to probe to obscured SFRs of $20$ $M_{odot}$$/$$yr$ ($3sigma$). Six of the targeted galaxies show significant ($geq$$3$$sigma$) dust continuum detections, more than doubling the number of known dust-detected galaxies at $z$$>$$6.5$. Their IR luminosities range from $2.7$$times$$10^{11}$ $L_{odot}$ to $1.1$$times$$10^{12}$ $L_{odot}$, equivalent to obscured SFRs of $20$ to $105$ $M_{odot}$$/$$yr$. We use our results to quantify the correlation of the infrared excess IRX on the UV-continuum slope $beta_{UV}$ and stellar mass. Our results are most consistent with an SMC attenuation curve for intrinsic $UV$-slopes $beta_{UV,intr}$ of $-2.63$ and most consistent with an attenuation curve in-between SMC and Calzetti for $beta_{UV,intr}$ slopes of $-2.23$, assuming a dust temperature $T_d$ of $50$ K. Our fiducial IRX-stellar mass results at $z$$sim$$7$$-$$8$ are consistent with marginal evolution from $z$$sim$$0$. We then show how both results depend on $T_d$. For our six dust-detected sources, we estimate their dust masses and find that they are consistent with dust production from SNe if the dust destruction is low ($<$$90$%). Finally we determine the contribution of dust-obscured star formation to the star formation rate density for $UV$ luminous ($<$$-$$21.5$ mag: $gtrsim$$1.7$$L_{UV} ^*$) $z$$sim$$7$$-$$8$ galaxies, finding that the total SFR density at $z$$sim$$7$ and $z$$sim$$8$ from bright galaxies is $0.18_{-0.10}^{+0.08}$ dex and $0.20_{-0.09}^{+0.05}$ dex higher, respectively, i.e. $sim$$frac{1}{3}$ of the star formation in $gtrsim$$1.7$$L_{UV} ^*$ galaxies at $z$$sim$$7$$-$$8$ is obscured by dust.
Measurements of stellar properties of galaxies when the universe was less than one billion years old yield some of the only observational constraints of the onset of star formation. We present here the inclusion of textit{Spitzer}/IRAC imaging in the spectral energy distribution fitting of the seven highest-redshift galaxy candidates selected from the emph{Hubble Space Telescope} imaging of the Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey (RELICS). We find that for 6/8 textit{HST}-selected $zgtrsim8$ sources, the $zgtrsim8$ solutions are still strongly preferred over $zsim$1-2 solutions after the inclusion of textit{Spitzer} fluxes, and two prefer a $zsim 7$ solution, which we defer to a later analysis. We find a wide range of intrinsic stellar masses ($5times10^6 M_{odot}$ -- $4times10^9$ $M_{odot}$), star formation rates (0.2-14 $M_{odot}rm yr^{-1}$), and ages (30-600 Myr) among our sample. Of particular interest is Abell1763-1434, which shows evidence of an evolved stellar population at $zsim8$, implying its first generation of star formation occurred just $< 100$ Myr after the Big Bang. SPT0615-JD, a spatially resolved $zsim10$ candidate, remains at its high redshift, supported by deep textit{Spitzer}/IRAC data, and also shows some evidence for an evolved stellar population. Even with the lensed, bright apparent magnitudes of these $z gtrsim 8$ candidates (H = 26.1-27.8 AB mag), only the textit{James Webb Space Telescope} will be able further confirm the presence of evolved stellar populations early in the universe.