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R. N. Durham, J. D. Lowenthal (Smith College), D. Koo (UCO/Lick Obs.), R. Guzm'an (U. Florida), M. Bershady (U. Wisconsin), J. Gallego (Univ. Complutensia de Madrid)
One major difficulty in probing the nature of Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at z~3 is the mismatch between our best images of LBGs, which are in the rest-UV, and the best images of local galaxies, which are in the rest-optical. To make direct comparisons between LBGs at z~3 and more local star-forming galaxies, we use HST/STIS to image a set of 12 nearby (z<0.05) H II galaxies in the FUV and a set of 14 luminous blue compact galaxies (LBCGs) at moderate redshift (z~0.5) in the NUV, corresponding to the rest-FUV. We then subject both sets of galaxy images to the same morphological measurements recently applied to LBGs at z~3 in the Hubble Deep Field-North. We find many qualitative and quantitative similarities between the rest-FUV characteristics of distant LBGs and of the more nearby starburst samples, including sizes, asymmetries, and concentrations. This implies that, like the nearby H II galaxies and LBCGs, LBGs may be predominately low-mass, extreme starbursts, with a high merger fraction.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35#5
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.