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M. Lenhert (MPIfeP)
We have discovered at least 13 galaxies with spectroscopically confirmed redshifts of 6.4>z>4.8 in two 40 square arcminute fields imaged deeply in R-, I-, and z-bands. These sources were selected using IAB<26.2 and RAB-IAB>1.5 or zAB<26.2 and IAB-zAB>1.5. The line fluxes range between 0.2 to 2.5 x 10-17 ergs cm-2 s-1 implying luminosities of around 1042-43 ergs s-1 for Ly\alpha and their high emission line equivalent widths and I-z colors suggest very young ages (<108 yrs). The sources at IAB<26.2 are less than that expected if the luminosity function of dropout galaxies remained unchanged between z=3 and z=6. The UV luminosity density from galaxies brighter than our flux limit is considerably less than that needed to ionize the universe at these redshifts. Moreover, no AGN were found. These results suggests that the universe was reionized by fainter galaxies than those studied here.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: mlehnert@mpe.mpg.de
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.