The Wide Field Imager Lyman-Alpha Search (WFILAS) for Galaxies at Redshift ~5.7: I. A Spatially Compact Lyman-alpha Emitting Galaxy at Redshift 5.721

Abstract

We report the spectroscopic confirmation of a compact \lya emitting galaxy at $z=5.721$. A FORS2 spectrum of the source shows a strong asymmetric line with a flux of 5$\times 10^{-17}$ erg s${}^{-1}$ cm${}^{-2}$, making it one of the brightest \lya emitting galaxies at this redshift, and a line-of-sight velocity dispersion of 400 km s${}^{-1}$. We also have a tentative detection of a second, narrower component that is redshifted by 400 km s${}^{-1}$ with respect to the main peak. A FORS2 image shows that the source is compact, with a FWHM of 0\farcs5, which corresponds to 3.2 kpc at this redshift. This source is a brighter example of \object{J1236.8+6215} \citep{Dawson02}, another \lya\ emitting galaxy at $z\sim 5.2$.

Accepted by A&A, 4 pages, 4 figures. High resolution figures are available via http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/~westra/publications/

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