Discovery of a z = 6.17 galaxy from CFHT and VLT observations
Abstract
We report the discovery of a galaxy at a redshift z = 6.17 identified from deep narrow band imaging and spectroscopic follow-up in one of the CFHT-VIRMOS deep survey fields at 0226-04. In addition to the existing deep BVRI images of this field, we obtained a very deep narrow band image at 920 nm with the aim of detecting Lyalpha emission at redshift ~ 6.5. Spectroscopic follow-up of some of the candidates selected on the basis of their excess flux in the NB920 filter was performed at the VLT-UT4 with the FORS2 instrument. For one object a strong and asymmetric emission line associated with a strong break in continuum emission is identified as Lyalpha at z = 6.17. This galaxy was selected from its continuum emission in the 920 nm filter rather than for its Lyalpha emission, in effect performing a Lyman Break detection at z = 6.17. We estimate a star formation rate of several tens of M/yr for this object, with a velocity dispersion 400 km/s. The spectroscopic follow-up of other high galaxy candidates is on-going.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0303646,
title = {Discovery of a z = 6.17 galaxy from CFHT and VLT observations},
author = {J. -G. Cuby and O. Le Fevre and H. McCracken and J. -C. Cuillandre and E. Magnier and B. Meneux},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0303646},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
4 pages, 3 figures, letter. Revised after referee comments. Accepted for publication in A&A