Colours of z~6 galaxies in GOODS

Spectroscopy of one object with the Advanced Camera for Surveys grism and from the Keck and Very Large Telescope observatories shows a strong continuum break and asymmetric line emission, identified as Ly{alpha} at z=5.83. We find only five spatially extended candidates with signal-to-noise ratios greater than 10, two of which have spectroscopic confirmation.

This is much fewer than would be expected if galaxies at z=6 had the same luminosity function as those at z=3. There are many fainter candidates, but we expect substantial contamination from foreground interlopers and spurious detections. Our best estimates favor a z=6 galaxy population with fainter luminosities, higher space density, and similar comoving ultraviolet emissivity to that at z=3, but this depends critically on counts at fluxes fainter than those reliably probed by the current data.