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摘要
We present two bright galaxy candidates at z ～ 12–13 identified in our H-dropout Lyman break selection with 2.3 deg2 near-infrared deep imaging data. These galaxy candidates, selected after careful screening of foreground interlopers, have spectral energy distributions showing a sharp discontinuity around 1.7 μm, a flat continuum at 2–5 μm, and nondetections at 12 galaxy. An ALMA program targeting one of the candidates shows a tentative 4σ [O iii] 88 μm line at z = 13.27, in agreement with its photometric redshift estimate. The number density of the z ～ 12–13 candidates is comparable to that of bright z ～ 10 galaxies and is consistent with a recently proposed double-power-law luminosity function rather than the Schechter function, indicating little evolution in the abundance of bright galaxies from z ～ 4 to 13. Comparisons with theoretical models show that the models cannot reproduce the bright end of rest-frame ultraviolet luminosity functions at z ～ 10–13. Combined with recent studies reporting similarly bright galaxies at z ～ 9–11 and mature stellar populations at z ～ 6–9, our results indicate the existence of a number of star-forming galaxies at z > 10, which will be detected with upcoming space missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope, Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, and GREX-PLUS.
