201. The Discovery of Two Lyman$\alpha$ Emitters Beyond Redshift 6 in the Subaru Deep Field
- Author
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Keiichi Kodaira, Yoshiaki Taniguchi, Nobunari Kashikawa, Norio Kaifu, Hiroyasu Ando, Hiroshi Karoji, Masaru Ajiki, Masayuki Akiyama, Kentaro Aoki, Mamoru Doi, Shinobu S. Fujita, Hisanori Furusawa, Tomoki Hayashino, Masatoshi Imanishi, Fumihide Iwamuro, Masanori Iye, Koji S. Kawabata, Naoto Kobayashi, Tadayuki Kodama, Yutaka Komiyama, George Kosugi, Yuichi Matsuda, Satoshi Miyazaki, Yoshihiko Mizumoto, Kentaro Motohara, Takashi Murayama, Tohru Nagao, Kyoji Nariai, Kouji Ohta, Youichi Ohyama, Sadanori Okamura, Masami Ouchi, Toshiyuki Sasaki, Kazuhiro Sekiguchi, Kazuhiro Shimasaku, Yasunori Shioya, Tadafumi Takata, Hajime Tamura, Hiroshi Terada, Masayuki Umemura, Tomonori Usuda, Masafumi Yagi, Toru Yamada, Naoki Yasuda, and Michitoshi Yoshida
- Subjects
Physics ,Wavelength ,Optical imaging ,Space and Planetary Science ,Star formation ,Hubble Deep Field ,Cutoff ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Astrophysics ,Lambda ,Spectroscopy ,Redshift - Abstract
We have performed a deep optical imaging survey using a narrowband filter ($NB921$) centered at $\lambda =$ 9196 \AA ~ together with $i^\prime$ and $z^\prime$ broadband filters covering an 814 arcmin$^2$ area of the Subaru Deep Field. We obtained a sample of 73 strong $NB921$-excess objects based on the following two color criteria; $z^\prime - NB921 > 1$ and $i^\prime - z^\prime > 1.3$. We then obtained optical spectroscopy of nine objects in our $NB921$-excess sample, and identified at least two Ly$\alpha$ emitters at$z=6.541 \pm 0.002$ and $z=6.578 \pm 0.002$, each of which shows the characteristic sharp cutoff together with the continuum depression at wavelengths shortward of the line peak. The latter object is more distant than HCM-6A at $z=6.56$ and thus this is the most distant known object found so far. These new data allow us to estimate the first meaningful lower limit of the star formation rate density beyond redshift 6; $\rho_{\rm SFR} \sim 5.2 \times 10^{-4} M_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-3}$. Since it is expected that the actual density is higher by a factor of several than this value, our new observation reveals that a moderately high level of star formation activity already occurred at $z \sim$ 6.6., Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures. PASJ (Letters), 55, vol.2, in press
- Published
- 2003