We present recent progress in searching for galaxies at redshift from z = 5 to z = 10. Wide-field and senstive surveys with 8m class telescopes have been providing more than several hundreds of star forming galaxies at z =5 - 7 that are probed in the optical window. These galaxies are used to study the early cosmic star formation activity as well as the early structure formation in the universe. Moreover, near infrared deep imaging and spectropscopic surveys have found probable candidates of galaxies from z = 7 to z = 10. Although these candidates are too faint to be identified unambiguously, we human being are now going to the universe beyond 13 billion light years, close to the epoch of first-generations stars; i.e., Population III stars. We also mention about challanges to find Population III-dominated galaxies in the early universe.
We compare the SFR of single star-forming galaxies with the SFR of star-forming galaxies in pairs. Volume-limited samples are compared selected from the 2dFGRS, applying a maximum magnitude difference criterion. We show that SF galaxies in SF + SF pairs typically increase their SFR as they get fainter, whereas this does not happen for SF galaxies in mixed (SF + passive) pairs. And we provide evidence that differences between single SF and SF in pairs get more significant when SF galaxies in mixed pairs are excluded from the pair sample. Our analysis confirms that enhanced SFR and the presence …
We examine the environment of star-forming galaxies selected in the 2dFGRS. We find that bright star-forming galaxies display a significant deficit of faint neighbours relative to passive galaxies. If a deficit in fainter companions implies a smaller mass halo, data support a scenario predicting star-formation to be suppressed in all systems more massive than 10^{13} M_sun,rather than in clusters only.
I summarize recent results from radio observations of high redshift star forming galaxies, discuss radio continuum emission as a measure of star formation rate, and consider future capabilities at cm to IR wavelengths.
We propose two statistical methods to derive oxygen abundances in HII regions and star forming galaxies and calibrate them with a sample of several hundred giant HII regions in spiral and blue compact galaxies as well as of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We show the advantages of our new abundance indicators over previous ones.
We explore the close environment of active star-forming galaxies (ASF) in the 2dF. We find ASF galaxies to be the most likely population to inhabit extremely close pairs located in low density regions. In addition, we find that ASF galaxies in these pairs are almost entirely concentrated in the -20 < M_B < -19 magnitude range.
We present a study of the connection between star-forming galaxies, AGN host galaxies, and normal early-type galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Using the SDSS DR5 and DR4plus data, we select our early-type galaxy sample in the color versus color-gradient space, and we classify the spectral types of the selected early-type galaxies into normal, star-forming, Seyfert, and LINER classes, using several spectral line flux ratios. We investigate the slope in the fundamental space for each class of early-type galaxies and find that there are obvious differences in the slopes of the fund…
The symbiosis of nuclear activity and star-formation in galaxies, as manifested in their spectral energy distributions (SEDs) is reviewed. Attention is drawn to an Hertzsprung-Russell diagram-equivalent for such objects, as well as to the importance of the SEDs in cosmological context.
The preliminary results from a deep emission-line search for warm ionized material in the halos of nearby active and star-forming galaxies are presented. The origin of this gas is discussed in the context of galaxy formation and evolution.
The main goal of this thesis work is studying the main properties of the stellar populations embedded in a statistically complete sample of local active star-forming galaxies: the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) Survey of emission-line galaxies. This sample contains 191 local star-forming galaxies at an average redshift of 0.026. The survey was carried out using an objective-prism technique centered at the wavelength of the Halpha nebular emission-line (a common tracer of recent star formation). (continues)
I briefly report on the X-ray detection of 10 radio sub-mJy sources in the 2 Ms Chandra observation of the Hubble Deep Field North region. These sources follow the same radio/X-ray luminosities relation which holds for nearby galaxies. Making use of this relation, X-ray number counts from star forming galaxies are predicted from the deep radio Log N-Log S's.
Properties of Lyman Break Galaxies at $z\sim5$ are presented and are compared with those at $z\sim 2-3$ LBGs to see evolution of LBGs from $z\sim5$ to $z \sim3-2$. The LBGs at $z\sim5$ are tend to have smaller stellar masses, but they may show large star formation rates and specific star formation rates.
We present a self-consistent model under a star-bursting scenario for H{\sc ii} galaxies, combining different codes of chemical evolution, evolutionary population synthesis and photoionization. The results obtained reproduce simultaneoulsy the observed abundances, diagnostic diagrams and equivalent width-colour relations for local H{\sc ii} galaxies.
We examine the tight correlation observed between the far infrared (FIR) and radio emission in normal and star burst galaxies. We show that significant deviations from the average relation are to be expected in young star burst or post star burst galaxies, due to the different fading times of FIR and Radio power.
We present results from the cross-correlation of the spectroscopic atlas of Ho etal (1995) with the ROSAT All-Sky Survey Bright Source Catalogue, in an attempt to understand the X-ray emission mechanisms in nearby galaxies. The resulting sample of 45 galaxies consists predominantly of AGN. However, there are several starforming galaxies spanning a wide range of X-ray luminosities (~10^{38} - 10^{42} erg s^{-1}). We have analyzed ROSAT and ASCA data for the two most luminous star-forming galaxies, namely NGC3310 and NGC3690. We find that their 0.1-10 keV X-ray spectra can be fitted by a soft th…
The Phoenix Deep Survey (PDS) is a multiwavelength survey based on deep 1.4 GHz radio observations used to identify a large sample of star forming galaxies to z=1. Photometric redshifts are estimated for the optical counterparts to the radio-detected galaxies, and their uncertainties quantified by comparison with spectroscopic redshift measurements. The photometric redshift estimates and associated best-fitting spectral energy distributions are used in a stacking analysis exploring the mean radio properties of U-band selected galaxies. Average flux densities of a few microJy are measured.
We present the results of a multiwavelength study of nearby galaxies, aimed at understanding the relation between the ultraviolet and far-infrared emission in star-forming galaxies. The dataset comprises new ultraviolet (from HST/STIS), ground-based Halpha, and radio continuum observations, together with archival infrared data (from IRAS and ISO). The local galaxies are used as benchmarks for comparison of the infrared-to-ultraviolet properties with two populations of high-redshift galaxies: the sub-millimeter star-forming galaxies detected by SCUBA and the ultraviolet-selected Lyman Break gal…
We present the results of detailed surface photometry of NGC 3808B and NGC 6286 - two spiral galaxies with possibly forming ring-like structures rotating around major axes of the galaxies. The formation of rings in NGC 3808B and NGC 6286 being accompanied by accretion of matter on galactic disk results in some interesting gasdynamical and stellardynamical effects in these galaxies. One can note, for instance, peculiar rotation curve of NGC 3808B gaseous disk; strong infrared and H-alpha emission from the galaxies; bending and flaring stellar disks in both galaxies. Our observations clearly ill…
(Abridged) We have used optical spectroscopy to investigate the radio- selected active galaxy populations in a sample of 20 nearby Abell clusters. The spectra were used to characterize the galaxies as AGN or galaxies forming stars at rates comparable to or greater than the Milky Way. A significant population of star forming galaxies with large amounts of nuclear dust extinction were revealed. This extinction eliminates bluer emission lines such as [OII], meaning their star formation could easily be overlooked in studies which focus on such features. Around 20% of cluster star forming galaxies …
The behaviour of the X-ray number counts of normal galaxies at faint (-18<Log F<-15 cgs in the 0.5-2.0 keV band) fluxes is investigated. The joint use of information from radio, far infrared and X-ray surveys allows the determination of the LogN-LogS of galaxies within a factor-of-3 over the whole flux range considered.
I review the effects of dust obscuration in galaxies at both low and high redshifts, and briefly discuss a method to remove dust reddening from the emerging light of star-forming galaxies. I also analyze the evolution of the dust opacity in galaxies as a function of redshift, and discuss its effect on the observed UV-optical light. The quantitative corrections for dust obscuration given here allow one to recover the intrinsic value of the global star formation at different cosmological times.
We construct three extreme different scenarios of the star formation histories applicable to a sample of dwarf galaxies, based either on their present metallicity or their luminosity. The three possible scenarios imply different mechanical energy input rates and these we compare with the theoretical lower limits established for the ejection of processed matter out of dwarf galaxies. The comparison strongly points at the existence of extended gaseous haloes in these galaxies, acting as the barrier that allows galaxies to retain their metals and enhance their abundance. At the same time our find…
We present a preliminary study of the star formation distribution within three Virgo Cluster galaxies using the 24 micron Spitzer observations from the Spitzer Survey of Virgo (SPITSOV) in combination with H-alpha observations. The purpose of our study is to explore the relationship between the star formation distribution within galaxies and the type (and phase) of interactions experienced within the cluster environment. Neither highly-obscured star formation nor strongly enhanced star-forming regions along the leading edges of galaxies experiencing ICM-ISM interactions were found. However, ve…
A simple two color selection based on B-, z-, and K- band photometry is proposed for culling galaxies at 1.4<z<2.5 in K-selected samples and classifying them as star-forming or passive systems. The method is calibrated on the highly complete spectroscopic redshift database of the K20 survey, verified with simulations and tested on other datasets. Requiring BzK=(z-K)-(B-z)>-0.2 (AB) allows to select actively star-forming galaxies at z>1.4, independently on their dust reddening. Instead, objects with BzK<-0.2 and (z-K)>2.5 (AB) colors include passively evolving galaxies at z>1.4, often with sphe…
We review the Lyan alpha emission in local star-forming galaxies. In most cases as already shown by the IUE, the emission is absent or much weaker than expected. This occurs because Lyman alpha photons can be resonantly scattered by the neutral gas and destroyed by even very low amounts of dust. However new Hubble Space Telescope observations (HST) indicate that other factors such as the velocity structure of the gas play a crucial role. Gas flows are likely to occur as powered by the kinetic energy released via stellar winds and supernova. We propose a scenario based on the hydrodynamics of s…
We performed H-alpha imaging observations of 22 luminous infrared galaxies to investigate how the distribution of star-forming regions in these galaxies is related to galaxy interactions. Based on correlation diagrams between H-alpha flux and continuum emission for individual galaxies, a sequence for the distribution of star-forming regions was found: very compact (~100 pc) nuclear starbursts with almost no star-forming activity in the outer regions (type 1), dominant nuclear starbursts < 1 kpc in size and a negligible contribution from the outer regions (type 2), nuclear starbursts > 1 kpc in…
We describe results of optical and near-IR observations of a large spectroscopic sample of star-forming galaxies photometrically-selected to lie in the redshift range 1.4 < z < 2.5, often called the ``redshift desert'' because of historical difficulty in obtaining spectroscopic redshifts in this range. We show that the former ``redshift desert'' is now very much open to observation.
We study the star formation rate and dust extinction properties of a sample of nearby star forming galaxies as derived from Halpha and UV (2000 A) observations and we compare them to those of a sample of starburst galaxies. The dust extinction in Halpha is estimated from the Balmer decrement and the extinction in UV using the FIR to UV flux ratio or the attenuation law for starburst galaxies of Calzetti et al. The Halpha and UV emissions are strongly correlated with a very low scatter for the star forming objects and with a much higher scatter for the starburst galaxies. The Halpha to UV flux …
We present the results of an effort to identify and study a sample of the likely progenitors of elliptical (E) and lenticular (S0) K+A galaxies. To achieve this, we have searched a sample ~11,000 nearby (m(r)<16) early-type galaxies selected by morphology from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Main spectroscopic sample for actively star-forming E and S0 galaxies. Using emission line ratios and visual inspection of SDSS g-band images, we have identified 335 galaxies from the SDSS Fourth Data Release (DR4) as actively star-forming E and S0 galaxies. These galaxies make up about 3% of the total…
We analyze the infrared (IR) spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for 10micron < lambda(rest) < 100micron for ~600 galaxies at z~0.7 in the extended Chandra Deep Field South by stacking their Spitzer 24, 70 and 160micron images. We place interesting constraints on the average IR SED shape in two bins: the brightest 25% of z~0.7 galaxies detected at 24micron, and the remaining 75% of individually-detected galaxies. Galaxies without individual detections at 24micron were not well-detected at 70micron and 160micron even through stacking. We find that the average IR SEDs of z~0.7 star-forming gala…
We present the first results of a project aiming to derive the physical properties of high-redshift lensed galaxies, intrinsically fainter than the Lyman break galaxies currently observed in the field. From FORS and ISAAC spectroscopy on the VLT, we use the full rest-frame UV-to-optical range to derive the physical properties (SFR, extinction, chemical abundances, dynamics, mass, etc) of low-luminosity z ~ 2 star-forming galaxies. Although the sample is still too small for statistical studies, these results give an insight into the nature and evolutionary status of distant star-forming objects…
The chemical composition of high-redshift galaxies is an important property that gives clues to their past history and future evolution. Measuring abundances in distant galaxies with current techniques is often a challenge, and the canonical metallicity indicators can often not be applied. I discuss currently available metallicity indicators based on stellar and interstellar absorption and emission lines, and assess their limitations and systematic uncertainties. Recent studies suggest that star-forming galaxies at redshift around 3 have heavy-element abundances already close to solar, in agre…
ISO has enabled far-infrared spectroscopy of a variety of galaxies. Using the [CII] (158 micron) and [OI](63 micron) lines, we can characterize the physical conditions in the star-forming ISM. These observations also form the basis of our expectations for what the Herschel Space Observatory will observe for high redshift galaxies. While [CII] is suppressed in ULIRGs and normal galaxies with high dust temperatures, it is stronger than expected in metal poor galaxies by factors of a few. Young galaxies at high redshifts might be expected to be both metal poor and actively star-forming, leading t…
I discuss the properties of gas-rich forming galaxies. I particularly emphasize the latest results on Lyman alpha emission that are relevant to the search of distant young galaxies. The interdependance of the Lyman alpha escape with the properties of the ISM in starburst galaxies is outlined. A new model from G. Tenorio-Tagle and his collaborators explaining Lyman alpha profiles in starburst galaxies from the hydrodynamics of superbubbles powered by massive stars is presented. I stress again that since Lyman alpha is primarely a diagnostic of the ISM, it is mandatory to understand how the ISM …
The determination of the metal abundances in the neutral interstellar medium of dwarf star-forming galaxies is a key step in understanding their physical and chemical evolution. This type of investigation has been possible in the last 5 years thanks to FUSE. We will give a flavor of the issues involved by presenting the work that we are performing in this astrophysical field.
We use a 0.040 < z < 0.085 sample of 37866 star-forming galaxies from the Fourth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to investigate the dependence of gas-phase chemical properties on stellar mass and environment. The local density, determined from the projected distances to the fourth and fifth nearest neighbours, is used as an environment indicator. Considering environments ranging from voids, i.e., log Sigma < -0.8, to the periphery of galaxy clusters, i.e., log Sigma =~ 0.8, we find no dependence of the relationship between galaxy stellar mass and gas-phase oxygen abundance, along …
The recent finding of substantial masses of cold molecular gas as well as young stellar populations in the host galaxies of quasars is at odds with results of Hubble Space Telescope imaging studies, since the latter appear to yield mature, quiescent early type hosts. It is demonstrated here that the characterization as `quiescent' is incorrect. Radio and far-infrared properties of both the HST sample and a larger comparison sample of uv-excess selected radio-quiet QSOs are consistent with substantial recent star-formation activity.
We report discovery of actively star forming elliptical galaxies in a morphologically classified sample of bright galaxies at a low redshift obtained from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The emission lines of these galaxies do not show the characteristics of active galactic nuclei, and thus their strong H$α$ emission is ascribed to star formation with a rate nearly as high as that is seen in typical late spiral galaxies. This is taken as evidence against the traditional view that all elliptical galaxies formed early and now evolve only passively. The frequency of such star forming elliptical gal…
Star forming galaxies exhibit a variety of physical conditions, from quiescent normal spirals to the most powerful dusty starbursts. In order to study these complex systems, we need a suitable tool to analyze the information coming from observations at all wavelengths. We present a new spectro-photometric model which considers in a consistent way starlight as reprocessed by gas and dust. We discuss preliminary results to interpret some observed properties of VLIRGs.
We study the relation between radio halos, the energy input by supernovae in the disk and the galaxy mass. We find that both the energy input by supernovae as well as the galaxy mass are important parameters for understanding the formation of radio halos. Galaxies with a high energy input by supernovae per star forming area and a low galaxy mass generally possess radio halos whereas galaxies with the opposite characteristics do not. Furthermore, there is a tentative correlation between the observed scale height and the expected height in a simple gravitational approximation.
HST spectroscopical observations of 8 HII galaxies are reported. Ly alpha emission was detected in 4 of them. We find that the velocity structure of the gas is the main determining factor for the escape of the Ly alpha photons, and not the abundance of dust. The rest of the sample shows broad damped Ly alpha absorption attributed to large HI column densities, that is static with respect to the emitted Ly alpha photons, emerging from the HII regions. The star-forming galaxies IZW18 and even more SBS0335-052 may have extremely metal deficient HI clouds, the latter with [O/H] as low as -7.2.
The detection of Ly alpha emission in star-forming galaxies in different shapes and intensities (always smaller than predicted for case B recombination) has puzzled the astronomical community for more than a decade. Here we use two dimensional calculations to follow the evolution of superbubbles and of the H II regions generated by the output of UV photons from massive stars. We show the impact caused by massive star formation in the ISM of different galaxies and we look at the conditions required to detect Ly alpha emission from a nuclear H II region, and the variety of profiles that may be e…
We present a search for star-forming satellite galaxies that are close enough to their parent galaxies to be considered analogues of the Magellanic Clouds. Our search technique relied on the detection of the satellites in continuum-subtracted narrow-band H alpha imaging of the central galaxies, which removes most of the background and foreground line-of-sight companions, thus giving a high probability that we are detecting true satellites. The search was performed for 119 central galaxies at distances between 20 and 40 Mpc, although spatial incompleteness means that we have effectively searche…
We study the H2 cooling emission of forming galaxies, and discuss their observability using the future infrared facility SAFIR. Forming galaxies with mass >10^11 Msun emit most of their gravitational energy liberated by contraction in molecular hydrogen line radiation, although a large part of thermal energy at virialization is radiated away by the H Ly alpha emission. For more massive objects, the degree of heating due to dissipation of kinetic energy is so great that the temperature does not drop below 10^4 K and the gravitational energy is emitted mainly by the Ly alpha emission. Therefore,…
We present redshift measurements of four faint galaxies around the archetypal ultraluminous infrared galaxy Arp 220. These galaxies have significantly higher redshifts ($z \sim$ 0.036 -- 0.091) than that of Arp 220 ($z \simeq 0.018$). Therefore, we conclude that they are background objects not physically related to Arp 220. Three of these faint galaxies located to the south of Arp 220 are a group of galaxies (or the brightest members in a cluster of galaxies) at $z \simeq 0.09$, as suggested by Heckman et al. [1996, ApJ, 457, 616] on the basis of their associated soft X-ray emission. We also r…
We present a catalog of 49 spectroscopic strong gravitational lens candidates selected from a Sloan Digital Sky Survey sample of 50996 luminous red galaxies. Potentially lensed star-forming galaxies are detected through the presence of background oxygen and hydrogen nebular emission lines in the spectra of these massive foreground galaxies. This multiline selection eliminates the ambiguity of single-line identification and provides a very promising sample of candidate galaxy-galaxy lens systems at low to intermediate redshift, with foreground redshifts ranging from 0.16 to 0.49 and background …
I will review recent progress in the modeling of the stellar spectral energy distributions of star-forming galaxies. I will cover the full relevant wavelength range from the near-infrared to the extreme ultraviolet, with an emphasis on the ultraviolet long- and shortward of the Lyman break where most of the stellar luminosity is emitted. Uncertainties in stellar atmosphere and evolution models will be critically examined, and the impact on the total panchromatic luminosity will be highlighted.
We analyse emission-line properties of the bj-selected Stromlo-APM spectra (<z> = 0.05). Because this is a representative sample, we can study the global spectral properties of the local galaxy population. We classify spectra according to their H_alpha emission, which is closely related to massive star formation. This study gives a comparative local point for analysis of more distant surveys. We show that in the local universe, faint, small galaxies are dominated by star formation activity, while bright, large galaxies are more quiescent. Obviously this picture of the local universe is quite d…
We present the optical and near-infrared luminosity and mass functions of the local star-forming galaxies in the Universidad Complutense de Madrid Survey. A bivariate method which explicitly deals with the Halpha selection of the survey is used when estimating these functions. Total stellar masses have been calculated on a galaxy-by-galaxy basis taking into account differences in star formation histories. The main difference between the luminosity distributions of the UCM sample and the luminosity functions of the local galaxy population is a lower normalization (phi^*), indicating a lower glo…
We present the first results of a large-scale survey, using the UV/blue sensitive LRIS-B spectrograph on the Keck I telescope, of galaxies in the redshift interval 1.4<z<2.5, often called the `redshift desert' because of historical difficulties in spectroscopically identifying galaxies in that range. We introduce two samples of star forming galaxies, `BX' galaxies at <z>=2.20+/-0.32 and `BM' galaxies at <z>=1.70+/-0.34; currently we have spectroscopically confirmed 749 of the former and 114 of the latter. We also present initial results of deep near-IR photometry and spectroscopy, from which w…
Evolution of galaxies through cosmic time has been widely studied at high redshift, but there are a few studies in this field at lower redshifts. However, low-redshifts studies will provide important clues to the evolution of galaxies, furnishing the required link between local and high-redshift universe. In this work we focus on the metallicity of the gas in spiral galaxies at low redshift looking for signs of chemical evolution. We analyze the metallicity contents of star forming galaxies of similar luminosities at different redshifts, we studied the metallicity of star forming galaxies from…
It has been known for two decades that a tight correlation exists between far-infrared (FIR) and radio (1.4 and 4.8 GHz) global fluxes/luminosities from galaxies, which may be explained in terms of massive star formation activities in these galaxies. For this very reason, a correlation might also exist between X-ray and FIR/radio global luminosities of galaxies. We analyze data from {\it ROSAT} All-Sky Survey and {\it IRAS} to show that such correlation does indeed exist between FIR (42.5$-122.5μ$m) and soft X-ray (0.1$-$2.4keV) luminosities in active star-forming galaxies (ASFGs).In order to …
We introduce a very deep, R_lim~27, multicolor imaging survey of very faint star-forming galaxies at z~4, z~3, z~2.2, and z~1.7. This survey, carried out on the Keck I telescope, uses the very same UGRI filter system that is employed by the Steidel team to select galaxies at these redshifts, and thus allows us to construct identically-selected, but much fainter, samples. However, our survey reaches ~1.5 mag deeper than the work of Steidel and his group, letting us probe substantially below the characteristic luminosity L* and thus study the properties and redshift evolution of the faint compon…
We examine the X-ray point source population and 2-10 keV luminosity for two galaxies with high star formation rates (SFRs), NGC 4194 and NGC 7541. The X-ray point source luminosity function (XLF) for these two galaxies is consistent with the XLF found by Grimm et al. (2003) for a sample of star-forming galaxies. Combining our results with a sample of galaxies with SFRs above 1 solar mass/year, we find that the number of X-ray point sources above a luminosity of 2E38 erg/s is N = (1.8 +/- 0.4) SFR/(solar mass/year). This number is lower than previously inferred by Grimm et al. based on a sampl…
New HI observations are presented for a complete sample of 109 low luminosity star-forming galaxies taken from the KPNO International Spectroscopic Survey (KISS), the first CCD-based wide-field objective-prism survey for emission-line galaxies. This sample consists of all star-forming galaxies with M_B > -18.0 and cz < 11,000 km/s from the first Halpha-selected survey list. Overall, 97 out of 109 galaxies have been detected in HI. We confirm the weak trend of increasing gas richness with decreasing luminosity found by previous authors. Gas richness is also shown to be weakly anti-correlated wi…
I review the effects of dust, both in absorption and in emission, on the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of Local star-forming galaxies. The energy balance between the stellar light absorbed by dust at UV-optical-nearIR wavelengths and the energy re-emitted by dust in the far infrared (FIR) shows that the amount of dust extinction affecting the galaxy can be predicted with simple prescriptions applied to the UV-optical data. The implications of these results for high redshift galaxies are discussed. Arguments can be given to support the view that Local starbursts are representative of hig…
We present our analysis on the clustering properties of star-forming galaxies selected by narrow-band excesses in the Subaru Deep Field. Specifically we focus on Halpha emitting galaxies at z = 0.24 and z = 0.40 in the same field, to investigate possible evolutionary signatures of clustering properties of star-forming galaxies. Based on the analysis on 228 Halpha emitting galaxies with 39.8 < log L(Halpha) < 40.8 at z = 0.40, we find that their two-point correlation function is estimated as xi = (r/1.62^{+0.64}_{-0.50} Mpc)^{-1.84 +/- 0.08}. This is similar to that of Halpha emitting galaxies …
We have recently discovered a forming cluster around the radio galaxy MRC 1138-262 at redshift 2.2. Besides the population of Ly alpha emitting galaxies that have been confirmed spectroscopically, we have detected many candidate H alpha emitters that seem to have a different spatial distribution from the other galaxies: they are more clustered towards the center of the cluster and seem to be distributed along the same direction as the radio source. We present here the characteristics of the Ly alpha and H alpha emitters and study the nature of these populations.