Spectroscopy of luminous z > 7 galaxy candidates and sources of contamination in z > 7 galaxy searches

We present three bright z +-dropout candidates selected from deep near-infrared (NIR) imaging of the COSMOS 2 deg2 field. All three objects match the 0.8-8 μm colors of other published z > 7 candidates but are 3 mag brighter, facilitating further study. Deep spectroscopy of two of the candidates covering 0.64-1.02 μm with Keck-DEIMOS and all three covering 0.94-1.10 μm and 1.52-1.80 μm with Keck-NIRSPEC detects weak spectral features tentatively identified as Lyα at z = 6.95 and z = 7.69 in two of the objects. The third object is placed at z ~ 1.6 based on a 24 μm and weak optical detection. A comparison with the spectral energy distributions of known z < 7 galaxies, including objects with strong spectral lines, large extinction, and large systematic uncertainties in the photometry, yields no objects with similar colors. However, the λ > 1 μm properties of all three objects can be matched to optically detected sources with photometric redshifts at z ~ 1.8, so the non-detection in the i + and z + bands is the primary factor which favors a z > 7 solution. If any of these objects are at z ~ 7, the bright end of the luminosity function is significantly higher at z > 7 than suggested by previous studies, but consistent within the statistical uncertainty and the dark matter halo distribution. If these objects are at low redshift, the Lyman break selection must be contaminated by a previously unknown population of low-redshift objects with very strong breaks in their broadband spectral energy distributions and blue NIR colors. The implications of this result on luminosity function evolution at high redshift are discussed. We show that the primary limitation of z > 7 galaxy searches with broad filters is the depth of the available optical data. Based on observations with the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation; the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under a contract with NASA; the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope with WIRCam, a joint project of CFHT, Taiwan, Korea, Canada, France, at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) which is operated by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, the Institute National des Sciences de l'Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique of France, and the University of Hawaii; the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope operated by the Joint Astronomy Centre on behalf of the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the U.K; the Subaru Telescope, which is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan; the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope with MegaPrime/MegaCam operated as a joint project by the CFHT Corporation, CEA/DAPNIA, the National Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique de France, TERAPIX and the University of Hawaii; the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by AURA Inc., under NASA contract NAS5-26555; the XMM-Newton, an ESA science mission with instruments and contributions directly funded by ESA Member States and NASA; the Chandra X-ray Observatory, which is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for and on behalf of the National Aeronautics Space Administration under contract NAS8-03060; the National Radio Astronomy Observatory which is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.; the 30 m telescope of the Institute for Radioastronomy at Millimeter Wavelengths (IRAM), which is funded by the German Max-Planck-Society, the French CNRS, and the Spanish National Geographical Institute