The ultraviolet spectral slope of high-redshift galaxies

The slope of the ultraviolet continuum emissions from a galaxy between 1250 and 2600 Å provides insights about several facets of the galaxy. Mainly, it is well-correlated with the amount of dust. This work presents a search for objects whose UV-continuum slopes are excessively steep, as well as suggestions for follow-up. The method used is looking through existing data sets, and proposing follow-up of the outliers in the distribution of slopes. Close to fifteen objects with slopes beyond what is easily explained by theory are presented. Since these lie beyond the realm of current theories, confirmations of these may hint at more extreme stellar populations than those currently known. This may include excessively metal-poor stars such as population III stars, or stellar populations where the initial mass function (IMF) for some reason may be biased towards massive stars. Steeper slopes are in general indicative of a lack of dust and an abundance of hot, blue stars; this is due to the reddening caused by dust, and emissions from cooler stars being peaked at longer wavelengths