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Searching the Continuum for Primeval Galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 May 2016

Marshall L. McCall
Affiliation:
York University, Department of Physics and Astronomy 4700 Keele St., North York, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3
Michael M. Derobertis
Affiliation:
York University, Department of Physics and Astronomy 4700 Keele St., North York, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3

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A population of primeval galaxies (PG's) should be detectable by directly imaging with two intermediate-band filters tuned to either side of the Lyman break (DeRobertis, M. M., and McCall, M. L. 1995, A.J., 109, 1947). In the figure below, the solid and short-dashed curves show the flux (left scale) as a function of redshift from a PG 0.7 Gyr old with a total stellar mass of as seen through filters with rest-frame passbands 890 ± 30 Å (‘β’) and 1010 ± 30 Å (‘ρ’), respectively, moved to redshift 5. The upper curves depict the colour β – ρ (right scale); the dotted line is for the 0.7 Gyr population, and the dot-dashed line is for a 7.5 Gyr model. A source can be identified as a PG if it can be clearly detected in the ρ filter and if it has a colour greater than +0.75 mag. Confusion with any old stellar systems at lower redshifts can be eliminated by supplementing observations with Gunn r and i. The colour condition selects Lyman break objects between redshifts 4.7 and 5.4, a range over an order of magnitude greater than is achievable through an emission line survey. The discriminatory power of the technique is not affected by internal dust.

Type
Poster Papers
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1996