Discovery of a faint R-band drop-out: A strongly reddened lensed star forming galaxy at z = 1.68
Abstract
We report the discovery of an unusual emission line galaxy at redshift z = 1.68 found from near-IR imaging and spectroscopic observations with ISAAC/VLT of a faint gravitationally lensed R-band drop-out behind the lensing cluster Abell 1835. From the emission lines of [O iii] λλ4959, 5007, and Hβ this galaxy shows a moderate to high excitation and line equivalent widths typical of relatively metal-poor H ii galaxies. Its apparent J magnitude translates to an absolute B-band magnitude M_B ~ -16.4 once corrected for a gravitational magnification of 1.8 mag. This makes it one of the faintest intermediate redshift galaxies known so far. From the presence of emission lines and the available VRIJHK photometry we determine constraints on its dominant stellar population. The only viable fit found is for a fairly young (~6-9 Myr) burst suffering from a considerable extinction (A_V ~ 1.2-1.8 mag). We find that this object resembles strongly H ii galaxies and intermediate redshift compact emission line galaxies, albeit suffering from a larger extinction than usual. We also discuss the possible contamination introduced by such R-band drop-out galaxies in searches for z ≳ 5 galaxies.
Additional Information
© 2003 ESO. Received: 1 October 2003. Accepted: 6 November 2003. We are grateful to T. Contini and M. Lemoine-Busserolle for useful comments and discussion. We thank the ESO Director General for a generous allocation of Director's Discretionary Time for ISAAC spectroscopy (DDT 271.A-5013). Part of this work was supported by the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and the Swiss National Foundation. JPK acknowledges support from Caltech and CNRS.Attached Files
Published - aafj011.pdf
Submitted - 0309798.pdf
Files
Name | Size | Download all |
---|---|---|
md5:e1e9e69bf55d6f370a9827480f34cfbd
|
232.0 kB | Preview Download |
md5:7152330e728801110cc202d266b1a026
|
335.2 kB | Preview Download |
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 85162
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20180307-080841185
- DDT 271.A-5013
- European Southern Observatory (ESO)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
- Caltech
- Created
-
2018-03-07Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-15Created from EPrint's last_modified field