High Redshift Candidates and the Nature of Small Galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field

Abstract

We present results on two related topics: 1. A discussion of high redshift candidates (z>4.5), and 2. A study of very small galaxies at intermediate redshifts, both sets being detected in the region of the northern Hubble Deep Field covered by deep NICMOS observations at 1.6 and 1.1 microns. The high redshift candidates are just those with redshift z>4.5 as given in the recent catalog of Thompson, Weymann and Storrie-Lombardi, while the ``small galaxy'' sample is defined to be those objects with isophotal area <= 0.2 squ. arcsec and with photometric redshifts 1<z<4.5. Of the 19 possible high redshift candidates listed in the Thompson et al. catalog, 11 have (nominal) photometric redshifts less than 5.0. Of these, however, only 4 are ``robust'' in the sense of yielding high redshifts when the fluxes are randomly perturbed with errors comparable to the estimated measuring error in each wave band. For the 8 other objects with nominal photometric redshifts greater than 5.0, one (WFPC2 4--473) has a published spectroscopic redshift. Of the remaining 7, 4 are robust in the sense indicated above. Two of these form a close pair (NIC 586 and NIC 107). The redshift of the object having formally the highest redshift, at 6.56 (NIC118 = WFPC2 4--601), is problematic, since F606W and F814W flux are clearly present, and the nature of this object poses a dilemma. (abridged)