Two multiple-imaged z=4.05 galaxies in the cluster-lens Abell 2390

Abstract

We present the first results on the identification and study of very distant field galaxies in the core of cluster-lenses, using a selection criterium based on both lens modelling and photometric redshifts. We concentrate on two multiple-imaged sources at z=4.05 in the cluster A2390. The 2 objects presented in this paper, namely H3 and H5, were identified through lens modelling as multiple images of high-redshift sources at z>3.5. We confirm the excellent agreement between this identification and both their photometric redshifts and morphologies. Our CFHT/WHT program for a systematic redshift survey of arcs in clusters has allowed to obtain a set of spectra on 3 different images at z~4: the brightest image of H3, which redshift was already confirmed by Frye & Broadhurst (1998), and the two brightest images of H5. The later is then confirmed spectroscopically as a multiple image, giving a strong support to the lens model. The main feature in each of these spectra is a strong emission line, identified as Ly-alpha, leading to z=4.05 for both H3 and H5. The spectrophotometric properties of these galaxies are studied, in particular the degeneracy in the parameter-space defined by the SFR type, age, metallicity and reddening. H3 and H5 are intrinsically bright and clumpy sources located ~100 kpc part on the source plane, with mean metallicities compatible with a fraction of solar or even solar values. All these results seem to favour a hierarchical merging scenario, where we are actually seeing a relatively advanced step for these 2 z~4 objects, with stars forming locally and efficiently from a preenriched gas.