Paper detail

HST Observations of Giant Arcs: High Resolution Imaging Of Distant Field Galaxies.

We present HST imaging of eight spectroscopically-confirmed giant arcs, pairs and arclets. These objects have all been extensively studied from the ground and we demonstrate the unique advantages of HST imaging in the study of such features by a critical comparison of our data with the previous observations. In particular we present new estimates of the core radii of two clusters (Cl0024+16, A370) determined from lensed features which are identifiable in our HST images. Although our HST observations include both pre- and post-refurbishment images, the depth of the exposures guarantees that the majority of the arcs are detected with diffraction-limited resolution. A number of the objects in our sample are multiply-imaged and we illustrate the ease of identification of such features when working at high resolution. We discuss the morphological and scale information on these distant field galaxies in the light of HST studies of lower redshift samples. We conclude that the dominant population of star-forming galaxies at z=1 is a factor of 1.5-2 times smaller than the similar group in the local field. This implies either a considerable evolution in the sizes of star-forming galaxies within the last $\sim$10 Gyrs or a shift in the relative space densities of massive and dwarf star-forming systems over the same timescale.