Detecting population III galaxies with HST and JWST

TL;DR

This paper predicts the detectability of Population III galaxies at high redshift using HST and JWST by modeling their fluxes and densities, suggesting potential observations in existing surveys.

Contribution

It introduces a method to project simulation results of Population III galaxies through lensing maps to estimate their observability with current telescopes.

Findings

Potential detection of Population III galaxies at z=7-10 in HST CLASH survey

Predicted fluxes and surface densities depend on star formation efficiency

Small numbers of lensed Population III galaxies could be observed

Abstract

A small fraction of the atomic-cooling halos assembling at z<15 may form out of minihalos that never experienced any prior star formation, and could in principle host small galaxies of chemically unenriched stars. Since the prospects of detecting isolated population III stars appear bleak even with the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), these population III galaxies may offer one of the best probes of population III stars in the foreseeable future. By projecting the results from population III galaxy simulations through cluster magnification maps, we predict the fluxes and surface number densities of pop III galaxy galaxies as a function of their typical star formation efficiency. We argue that a small number of lensed population III galaxies in principle could turn up at z=7-10 in the ongoing Hubble Space Telescope survey CLASH, which covers a total of 25 low-redshift galaxy clusters.