We report on our first set of spectroscopic Hubble Space Telescope
observations of the z~11 candidate galaxy strongly lensed by the
MACSJ0647.7+7015 galaxy cluster. The three lensed images are faint and we show
that these early slitless grism observations are of sufficient depth to
investigate whether this high-redshift candidate, identified by its strong
photometric break at ~1.5 micron, could possibly be an emission line galaxy at
a much lower redshift. While such an interloper would imply the existence of a
rather peculiar object, we show here that such strong emission lines would
clearly have been detected. Comparing realistic, two-dimensional simulations to
these new observations we would expect the necessary emission lines to be
detected at >5 sigma while we see no evidence for such lines in the dispersed
data of any of the three lensed images. We therefore exclude that this object
could be a low redshift emission line interloper, which significantly increases
the likelihood of this candidate being a bona fide z~11 galaxy.
Description
[1502.05681] Not In Our Backyard: Spectroscopic Support for the CLASH z=11 Candidate MACS0647-JD
%0 Generic
%1 pirzkal2015backyard
%A Pirzkal, Nor
%A Coe, Dan
%A Frye, Brenda L.
%A Brammer, Gabriel
%A Moustakas, John
%A Rothberg, Barry
%A Broadhurst, Thomas J.
%A Bouwens, Rychard
%A Bradley, Larry
%A van der Wel, Arjen
%A Kelson, Daniel D.
%A Donahue, Megan
%A Zitrin, Adi
%A Moustakas, Leonidas
%A Barker, Elizabeth
%D 2015
%K candidate high-z
%T Not In Our Backyard: Spectroscopic Support for the CLASH z=11 Candidate
MACS0647-JD
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1502.05681
%X We report on our first set of spectroscopic Hubble Space Telescope
observations of the z~11 candidate galaxy strongly lensed by the
MACSJ0647.7+7015 galaxy cluster. The three lensed images are faint and we show
that these early slitless grism observations are of sufficient depth to
investigate whether this high-redshift candidate, identified by its strong
photometric break at ~1.5 micron, could possibly be an emission line galaxy at
a much lower redshift. While such an interloper would imply the existence of a
rather peculiar object, we show here that such strong emission lines would
clearly have been detected. Comparing realistic, two-dimensional simulations to
these new observations we would expect the necessary emission lines to be
detected at >5 sigma while we see no evidence for such lines in the dispersed
data of any of the three lensed images. We therefore exclude that this object
could be a low redshift emission line interloper, which significantly increases
the likelihood of this candidate being a bona fide z~11 galaxy.
@misc{pirzkal2015backyard,
abstract = {We report on our first set of spectroscopic Hubble Space Telescope
observations of the z~11 candidate galaxy strongly lensed by the
MACSJ0647.7+7015 galaxy cluster. The three lensed images are faint and we show
that these early slitless grism observations are of sufficient depth to
investigate whether this high-redshift candidate, identified by its strong
photometric break at ~1.5 micron, could possibly be an emission line galaxy at
a much lower redshift. While such an interloper would imply the existence of a
rather peculiar object, we show here that such strong emission lines would
clearly have been detected. Comparing realistic, two-dimensional simulations to
these new observations we would expect the necessary emission lines to be
detected at >5 sigma while we see no evidence for such lines in the dispersed
data of any of the three lensed images. We therefore exclude that this object
could be a low redshift emission line interloper, which significantly increases
the likelihood of this candidate being a bona fide z~11 galaxy.},
added-at = {2015-02-20T09:50:08.000+0100},
author = {Pirzkal, Nor and Coe, Dan and Frye, Brenda L. and Brammer, Gabriel and Moustakas, John and Rothberg, Barry and Broadhurst, Thomas J. and Bouwens, Rychard and Bradley, Larry and van der Wel, Arjen and Kelson, Daniel D. and Donahue, Megan and Zitrin, Adi and Moustakas, Leonidas and Barker, Elizabeth},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/26240515a95e9da06d018c6b53d553069/miki},
description = {[1502.05681] Not In Our Backyard: Spectroscopic Support for the CLASH z=11 Candidate MACS0647-JD},
interhash = {0b13206f21f2633921b4981adb447fd7},
intrahash = {6240515a95e9da06d018c6b53d553069},
keywords = {candidate high-z},
note = {cite arxiv:1502.05681Comment: 14 Pages. 6 Figures. 2nd revised version. To appear in ApJ. Please contact npirzkal@stsci.edu for comments on this paper},
timestamp = {2015-02-20T09:50:08.000+0100},
title = {Not In Our Backyard: Spectroscopic Support for the CLASH z=11 Candidate
MACS0647-JD},
url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1502.05681},
year = 2015
}