We report on a complete sample of 7 luminous early-type galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF) with spectroscopic redshifts between 1.39 and 2.47 and to K AB < 23. Using the BzK selection criterion we have pre-selected a set of objects over the UDF which fulfill the photometric conditions for being passively evolving galaxies at z > 1.4. Low-resolution spectra of these objects have been extracted from the HST+ACS grism data taken over the UDF by the GRAPES project. Redshift for the 7 galaxies have been identified based on the UV feature at rest frame 2640 < λ < 2850 Å. This feature is mainly due to a combination of FeII, MgI and MgII absorptions which are characteristic of stellar populations dominated by stars older than ∼ 0.5 Gyr. The redshift identification and the passively evolving nature of these galaxies is further supported by the photometric redshifts and by the overall spectral energy distribution (SED), with the ultradeep HST+ACS/NICMOS imaging revealing compact morphologies typical of elliptical/early-type galaxies. From the SED we derive stellar masses of > ∼ 10 11 M ⊙ and ages of ∼ 1 Gyr. Their space density at < z >= 1.7 appears to be roughly a factor of 2-3 smaller than that of their local counterparts, further supporting the notion that such massive and old galaxies are already ubiquitous at early cosmic times. Much smaller effective radii are derived for some of the objects compared to local massive ellipticals, which may be due to morphological K corrections, evolution, or the presence of a central point-like source. Nuclear activity is indeed present in a subset of the galaxies, as revealed by them being hard X-ray sources, hinting to AGN activity having played a role in discontinuing star formation.

We report the discovery of 33 Lyman break galaxy (LBG) candidates at z ∼ 8 detected in Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) imaging as part of the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies (BoRG) pure-parallel survey. The ongoing BoRG survey currently has the largest area (274 arcmin 2 ) with Y 098 (or Y 105 ), J 125 , and H 160 band coverage needed to search for z ∼ 8 galaxies, about three times the current CANDELS area, and slightly larger than what will be the final CANDELS wide component with Y 105 data (required to select z ∼ 8 sources). Our sample of 33 relatively bright Y 098 -dropout galaxies have J 125 band magnitudes between 25.5 and 27.4 mag. This is the largest sample of bright (J 125 27.4) z ∼ 8 galaxy candidates presented to date. Combining our dataset with the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field (HUDF09) dataset, we constrain the rest-frame ultraviolet galaxy luminosity function at z ∼ 8 over the widest dynamic range currently available. The combined datasets are well fitted by a Schechter function, i.e. φ(L) = φ * (L/L * ) α e −(L/L * ) , without evidence for an excess of sources at the bright end. At 68% confidence, for h = 0.7 we derive φ * = (4.3 +3.5 −2.1 ) × 10 −4 Mpc −3 , M * = −20.26 +0.29 −0.34 , and a very steep faint-end slope α = −1.98 +0.23 −0.22 . While the best-fit parameters still have a strong degeneracy, especially between φ * and M * , our improved coverage at the bright end has reduced the uncertainty of the faint-end power-law slope at z ∼ 8 compared to the best previous determination at ±0.4. With a future expansion of the BoRG survey, combined with planned ultradeep WFC3/IR observations, it will be possible to further reduce this uncertainty and clearly demonstrate the steepening of the faint-end slope compared to measurements at lower redshift, thereby confirming the key role played by small galaxies in the reionization of the universe.

We present the results from a new search for candidate galaxies at z ≈ 8.5–11 discovered over the 850 arcmin2 area probed by the Cosmic Assembly Near-Infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS). We use a photometric-redshift selection including both Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescope photometry to robustly identify galaxies in this epoch at H 160 < 26.6. We use a detailed vetting procedure, including screening against persistence and stellar contamination, and the inclusion of ground-based imaging and follow-up Hubble Space Telescope imaging to build a robust sample of 11 candidate galaxies, three presented here for the first time. The inclusion of Spitzer/IRAC photometry in the selection process reduces contamination, and yields more robust redshift estimates than Hubble alone. We constrain the evolution of the rest-frame ultraviolet luminosity function via a new method of calculating the observed number densities without choosing a prior magnitude bin size. We find that the abundance at our brightest probed luminosities (M UV = − 22.3) is consistent with predictions from simulations that assume that galaxies in this epoch have gas depletion times at least as short as those in nearby starburst galaxies. Due to large Poisson and cosmic variance uncertainties, we cannot conclusively rule out either a smooth evolution of the luminosity function continued from z = 4–8, or an accelerated decline at z > 8. We calculate that the presence of seven galaxies in a single field Extended Groth Strip is an outlier at the 2σ significance level, implying the discovery of a significant over-density. These scenarios will be imminently testable to high confidence within the first year of observations of the James Webb Space Telescope.

We examine the stellar populations of a sample of 98 z ∼ 4.5 Lyman alpha emitting galaxies using their broadband colors derived from deep photometry at the MMT. These galaxies were selected by narrowband excess from the Large Area Lyman Alpha survey. Twenty-two galaxies are detected in two or more of our MMT filters (g', r', i' and z'). By comparing broad and narrowband colors of these galaxies to synthetic colors from stellar population models, we determine their ages and stellar masses. The highest equivalent width objects have an average age of 4 Myr, consistent with ongoing star formation. The lowest EW objects show an age of 40 -200 Myr, consistent with the expectation that larger numbers of stars are causing low EWs. We found masses ranging from 2×10 7 M ⊙ for the youngest objects in the sample to 2×10 9 M ⊙ for the oldest. It is possible that dust effects could produce large equivalent widths even in older populations by allowing the Lyman alpha photons to escape, even while the continuum is extinguished, and we present models for this scenario also.

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