Ultra-deep spectroscopy of Lyman-break galaxies at z ～ 6

摘要

The analysis of Lyman-break galaxies lying at z > 5 has greatly enhanced our understanding of star formation at this cosmologically important epoch. However the vast majority of candidate galaxies at these redshifts either lack spec-troscopic confirmation or were selected for their extreme youth and strong Lyman-a emission. Spectroscopy is essential both to constrain the redshifts and properties of the candidate galaxies, and to eliminate lower-redshift interlopers. We discuss results from our recent spectroscopy of high-redshift, rest-UV selected sources using 8 and 10 m telescopes and the contribution of such observations to our overall understanding of the cosmological evolution of the galaxy population.