Young Galaxy Candidates in the Hubble Frontier Fields - III. MACSJ0717.5+3745

Creators: Laporte, N.; Infante, L.; Troncoso Iribarren, P.; Zheng, W.; Molino, A.; Bauer, F. E.; Bina, D.; Broadhurst, Tom; Chilingarian, I.; Garcia, S.; Kim, S.; Marques-Chaves, R.; Moustakas, J.; Pellò, R.; Pérez-Fournon, I.; Shu, X.; Streblyanska, A.; Zitrin, A.

Abstract

In this paper we present the results of our search for and study of z ≳ 6 galaxy candidates behind the third Frontier Fields (FFs) cluster, MACS J0717.5+3745, and its parallel field, combining data from Hubble and Spitzer. We select 39 candidates using the Lyman break technique, for which the clear non-detection in optical make the extreme mid-z interlopers hypothesis unlikely. We also take benefit from z ≳ 6 samples selected using the previous FF data sets of Abell 2744 and MACS 0416 to improve the constraints on the properties of very high redshift objects. We compute the redshift and the physical properties such emission lines properties, star formation rate, reddening, and stellar mass for all FF objects from their spectral energy distribution using templates including nebular emission lines. We study the relationship between several physical properties and confirm the trend already observed in previous surveys for evolution of star formation rate with galaxy mass and between the size and the UV luminosity of our candidates. The analysis of the evolution of the UV luminosity function with redshift seems more compatible with an evolution of density. Moreover, no robust z ⩾ 8.5 object is selected behind the cluster field and few z ~ 9 candidates have been selected in the two previous data sets from this legacy survey, suggesting a strong evolution in the number density of galaxies between z ~ 8 and 9. Thanks to the use of the lensing cluster, we study the evolution of the star formation rate density produced by galaxies with L > 0.03 L^*, and confirm the strong decrease observed between z ~ 8 and 9.

Additional Information

© 2016 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2015 November 16; accepted 2016 February 7; published 2016 March 24. The authors thank the anonymous referee for the useful comments that strongly improved the quality of the paper. We acknowledge support from CONICYT-Chile grants Basal-CATA PFB-06/2007 (NL, LI, FEB, and SK), Gemini-CONICYT #32120003 (NL), "EMBIGGEN" Anillo ACT1101 (FEB), FONDECYT 1141218 (FEB), FONDECYT Postdoctorado 3160122 (NL), 3140542 (PT) and Project IC120009 "Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS)" of the Iniciativa Científica Milenio del Ministerio de Economía, Fomento y Turismo (FEB), and the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche bearing the reference ANR-09-BLAN-0234 (RP, DB). A.M. acknowledges the financial support of the Brazilian funding agency FAPESP (Postdoc fellowship—process number 2014/11806-9). This work was supported by award AR-13279 from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. I.C. acknowledges the support from Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Telescope Data Center and from the grants MD-7355.2015.2 by the research council of the president of the Russian Federation, 15-32-21062 and 15-52-15050 by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. This work is based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. The HST image mosaics were produced by the Frontier Fields Science Data Products Team at STScI. This work is based in part on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA. This work utilizes gravitational lensing models produced by PIs Bradac, Ebeling, Merten & Zitrin, Sharon, and Williams funded as part of the HST Frontier Fields program conducted by STScI. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. The lens models were obtained from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST).

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