A Galaxy at z=5.34
Abstract
We report the discovery of Lyman alpha emission from a galaxy at z=5.34, the first object at z>5 with a spectroscopically confirmed redshift. The faint continuum emission (m(8000A)=27 AB mag), relatively small rest-frame equivalent width of the emission line (rest equivalent width of 95A), and limits on the NV/Lya ratio suggest that this is a star-forming galaxy and not an AGN. The star-formation rates implied by the UV continuum emission and the Lyman alpha emission are (in the absence of dust extinction) fairly modest (about 6 Msun/yr for q0=0.5, H0=50). The continuum luminosity is similar to that of sub-L*(1500) star-forming galaxies at z~3, and the width of the Lyman alpha line yields an upper limit to the mass of < 2.6 x 10^{10} Msun. The strong emission line detected in this low-luminosity galaxy provides hope for the discovery of higher luminosity primeval galaxies at redshifts z>5.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9803137,
title = {A Galaxy at z=5.34},
author = {Arjun Dey and Hyron Spinrad and Daniel Stern and James R. Graham and Frederic H. Chaffee},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9803137},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
13 pages, 3 postscript figures; Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters