Beecroft Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology

Abstract:

We present new Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 (HST/WFC3) imaging of 25 extremely luminous (−23.2 ≤ MUV ≲ −21.2) Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) at z ≃ 7. The sample was initially selected from 1.65 deg2 of ground-based imaging in the UltraVISTA/COSMOS and UDS/SXDS fields, and includes the extreme Lyman α emitters, ‘Himiko’ and ‘CR7’. A deconfusion analysis of the deep Spitzer photometry available suggests that these galaxies exhibit strong rest-frame optical nebular emission lines (EW0(Hβ + [O iii]) > 600 Å). We find that irregular, multiple-component morphologies suggestive of clumpy or merging systems are common (fmulti > 0.4) in bright z ≃ 7 galaxies, and ubiquitous at the very bright end (MUV < −22.5). The galaxies have half-light radii in the range r1/2 ∼ 0.5–3 kpc. The size measurements provide the first determination of the size–luminosity relation at z ≃ 7 that extends to MUV ∼ −23. We find the relation to be steep with r1/2 ∝ L1/2. Excluding clumpy, multicomponent galaxies however, we find a shallower relation that implies an increased star formation rate surface density in bright LBGs. Using the new, independent, HST/WFC3 data we confirm that the rest-frame UV luminosity function at z ≃ 7 favours a power-law decline at the bright end, compared to an exponential Schechter function drop-off. Finally, these results have important implications for the Euclid mission, which we predict will detect >1000 similarly bright galaxies at z ≃ 7. Our new HST imaging suggests that the vast majority of these galaxies will be spatially resolved by Euclid, mitigating concerns over dwarf star contamination.

Abstract:

We present a clustering comparison of 12 galaxy formation models (including Semi-Analytic Models (SAMs) and Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) models) all run on halo catalogues and merger trees extracted from a single {\Lambda}CDM N-body simulation. We compare the results of the measurements of the mean halo occupation numbers, the radial distribution of galaxies in haloes and the 2-Point Correlation Functions (2PCF). We also study the implications of the different treatments of orphan (galaxies not assigned to any dark matter subhalo) and non-orphan galaxies in these measurements. Our main result is that the galaxy formation models generally agree in their clustering predictions but they disagree significantly between HOD and SAMs for the orphan satellites. Although there is a very good agreement between the models on the 2PCF of central galaxies, the scatter between the models when orphan satellites are included can be larger than a factor of 2 for scales smaller than 1 Mpc/h. We also show that galaxy formation models that do not include orphan satellite galaxies have a significantly lower 2PCF on small scales, consistent with previous studies. Finally, we show that the 2PCF of orphan satellites is remarkably different between SAMs and HOD models. Orphan satellites in SAMs present a higher clustering than in HOD models because they tend to occupy more massive haloes. We conclude that orphan satellites have an important role on galaxy clustering and they are the main cause of the differences in the clustering between HOD models and SAMs.

Abstract:

The z = 6.6 Lyman-$\alpha$ emitter 'CR7' has been claimed to have a Population III-like stellar population, or alternatively, be a candidate Direct Collapse Black Hole (DCBH). In this paper we investigate the evidence for these exotic scenarios using recently available, deeper, optical, near-infrared and mid-infrared imaging. We find strong Spitzer/IRAC detections for the main component of CR7 at 3.6 and 4.5 microns, and show that it has a blue colour ([3.6] - [4.5] $= -1.2\pm 0.3$). This colour cannot be reproduced by current Pop. III or pristine DCBH models. Instead, the results suggest that the [3.6] band is contaminated by the [OIII]4959,5007 emission line with an implied rest-frame equivalent width of EW_0 (H$\beta$ + [OIII]) $\gtrsim 2000$\AA. Furthermore, we find that new near-infrared data from the UltraVISTA survey supports a weaker He II 1640 emission line than previously measured, with EW_0 $= 40 \pm 30$\AA. For the fainter components of CR7 visible in Hubble Space Telescope imaging, we find no evidence that they are particularly red as previously claimed, and show that the derived masses and ages are considerably uncertain. In light of the likely detection of strong [OIII] emission in CR7 we discuss other more standard interpretations of the system that are consistent with the data. We find that a low-mass, narrow-line AGN can reproduce the observed features of CR7, including the lack of radio and X-ray detections. Alternatively, a young, low-metallicity (~1/200 solar) starburst, modelled including binary stellar pathways, can reproduce the inferred strength of the He II line and simultaneously the strength of the observed [OIII] emission, but only if the gas shows super-solar $\alpha$-element abundances (O/Fe ~ 5 O/Fe solar).