The ages, masses and star formation rates of spectroscopically confirmed z 6 galaxies in candels

Abstract

We report the results of a study exploring the stellar populations of 13 luminous (L > 1.2L), spectroscopically confirmed, galaxies in the redshift interval 5.5 < z < 6.5, all with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3/infrared and Spitzer Infrared Array Camera imaging from the HST/Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Survey and Spitzer Extended Deep Survey. Based on fittingthe observed photometry with galaxy spectral energy distribution (SED) templates covering a wide range of different star formation histories, including exponentially increasing star formation rates and a self-consistent treatment of Lyα emission, we find that the derived stellar masses lie within the range of 109 <50 Myr). Finally, considering all of the different star formation histories explored, we find that the median best-fitting ages are of the order of 200-300 Myr and that the objects with the tightest constraints indicate ages in the range of 50-200 Myr ©2012 The Authors.