Spitzer Space Telescope Constraint on the Stellar Mass of a z = 6.96 Lyman Alpha Emitter

TL;DR

This study uses Spitzer infrared observations to constrain the stellar mass of a high-redshift Lyman alpha emitter, revealing it has a mass range comparable to similar galaxies at lower redshifts.

Contribution

First to place upper limits on the stellar mass of a z=6.96 LAE using mid-infrared data, informing galaxy mass evolution at early cosmic times.

Findings

IOK-1 is not significantly detected in infrared bands.

Stellar mass constrained between 2-9 x 10^8 and 1-4 x 10^{10} solar masses.

Mass range similar to lower-redshift LAEs.

Abstract

We obtained mid-infrared 3.6 and 4.5 micron imaging of a z=6.96 Lyman alpha emitter (LAE) IOK-1 discovered in the Subaru Deep Field, using Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Array Camera observations. After removal of a nearby bright source, we find that IOK-1 is not significantly detected in any of these infrared bands to m_3.6 ~ 24.00 and m_4.5 ~ 23.54 at 3 sigma. Fitting population synthesis models to the spectral energy distribution consisting of the upper limit fluxes of the optical to infrared non-detection images and fluxes in detection images, we constrain the stellar mass M* of IOK-1. This LAE could have either a mass as low as M* <~ 2-9 x 10^8 Msun for the young age (<~ 10 Myr) and the low dust reddening (A_V ~ 0) or a mass as large as M* <~ 1-4 x 10^{10} Msun for either the old age (> 100 Myr) or the high dust reddening (A_V ~ 1.5). This would be within the range of masses of z ~ 3-6.6 LAEs studied to date, ~ 10^6-10^{10} Msun. Hence, IOK-1 is not a particularly unique galaxy with extremely high mass or low mass but is similar to one of the LAEs seen at the later epochs.