Spectroscopy and Imaging of Low Mass High Redshift Systems

Using data from the Hobby Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) blind spectroscopic survey, we were able to extract spectra from targeted galaxies in the 1.9 < 𝒛 < 3.5 range, along with image cutouts from several catalogs. With this data, we took averages of thousands of spectra and images, creating the equivalent of a deep exposure for several groups of Ly𝛼 emitting galaxies within this high redshift range, and ultimately detecting signals from some of the most distant galaxies ever recorded. The various data selections were chosen with parameters on signal-to-noise, line-width, redshift, wavelength, and magnitude. Group 1 has a wavelength cut of 5100 Å < λ < 5300 Å, while group 2 has a wavelength cut of 5300 Å < λ < 5500 Å. We shifted the assortment of spectra within our selections to the same resting wavelength of 1216 Å, and used a median average to stack the extracted data, producing full average spectra for all selection groups. Additionally, we stacked images from the same high magnitude selections in an attempt to render images with visible sources, and plan to adjust the criteria in the coming months to better illustrate faint sources. We acknowledge support from the NSF REU grant AST-1757983 (PI:Jogee).