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S. R. Heap, J.-C. Bouret, I. Hubeny, T. M. Lanz (NASA's GSFC)
MS1512-cB58 is an z=2.73 galaxy whose apparent brightness is amplified by ~30X due to gravitationally lensing. The restframe far-UV spectrum of cB58 that was obtained by Keck-I/LRIS is ``one of the best ultraviolet spectra of a starburst galaxy obtained at any redshift'' (Pettini et al. 1999, astro-ph/9908007). We have therefore analyzed and modelled the spectrum of this galaxy in order to obtain information about the stellar content of high-redshift galaxies. We find that our model spectrum is a near match to the observed spectrum of cB58 if we assume a constant rate of star formation, a SMC-like metallicity, and a Salpeter IMF extending up to ~100 M\odot. In our paper, we will present the details of the spectral synthesis (based on both observed and model spectra of OB stars), and we will investigate the reliability of current evolutionary tracks (based on single, non-rotating stars) for interpreting the spectra of star-forming galaxies.