No Arabic abstract
We present a study of the prevalence, strength, and kinematics of ultraviolet FeII and MgII emission lines in 212 star-forming galaxies at z = 1 selected from the DEEP2 survey. We find FeII* emission in composite spectra assembled on the basis of different galaxy properties, indicating that FeII* emission is prevalent at z = 1. In these composites, FeII* emission is observed at roughly the systemic velocity. At z = 1, we find that the strength of FeII* emission is most strongly modulated by dust attenuation, and is additionally correlated with redshift, star-formation rate, and [OII] equivalent width, such that systems at higher redshifts with lower dust levels, lower star-formation rates, and larger [OII] equivalent widths show stronger FeII* emission. We detect MgII emission in at least 15% of the individual spectra and we find that objects showing stronger MgII emission have higher specific star-formation rates, smaller [OII] linewidths, larger [OII] equivalent widths, lower dust attenuations, and lower stellar masses than the sample as a whole. MgII emission strength exhibits the strongest correlation with specific star-formation rate, although we find evidence that dust attenuation and stellar mass also play roles in the regulation of MgII emission. Future integral field unit observations of the spatial extent of FeII* and MgII emission in galaxies with high specific star-formation rates, low dust attenuations, and low stellar masses will be important for probing the morphology of circumgalactic gas.
We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of the [CII] 157.7micron fine structure line and thermal dust continuum emission from a pair of gas-rich galaxies at z=4.7, BR1202-0725. This system consists of a luminous quasar host galaxy and a bright submm galaxy (SMG), while a fainter star-forming galaxy is also spatially coincident within a 4 (25 kpc) region. All three galaxies are detected in the submm continuum, indicating FIR luminosities in excess of 10^13 Lsun for the two most luminous objects. The SMG and the quasar host galaxy are both detected in [CII] line emission with luminosities, L([CII]) = (10.0 +/- 1.5)x10^9 Lsun and L([CII]) = (6.5+/-1.0)x10^9 Lsun, respectively. We estimate a luminosity ratio, L([CII])/L(FIR) = (8.3+/-1.2)x10^-4 for the starburst SMG to the North, and L([CII])/L(FIR) = (2.5+/-0.4)x10^-4 for the quasar host galaxy, in agreement with previous high-redshift studies that suggest lower [CII]-to-FIR luminosity ratios in quasars than in starburst galaxies. The third fainter object with a flux density, S(340GHz) = 1.9+/-0.3 mJy, is coincident with a Ly-Alpha emitter and is detected in HST ACS F775W and F814W images but has no clear counterpart in the H-band. Even if this third companion does not lie at a similar redshift to BR1202-0725, the quasar and the SMG represent an overdensity of massive, infrared luminous star-forming galaxies within 1.3 Gyr of the Big Bang.
Non-resonant FeII* 2365, 2396, 2612, 2626 emission can potentially trace galactic winds in emission and provide useful constraints to wind models. From the 3x3 mosaic of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (UDF) obtained with the VLT/MUSE integral field spectrograph, we identify a statistical sample of 40 FeII* emitters and 50 MgII 2796, 2803 emitters from a sample of 271 [OII] 3726, 3729 emitters with reliable redshifts from z = 0.85 - 1.5 down to 2E-18 (3 sigma) ergs/s/cm^2 (for [OII]), covering the stellar mass range 10^8 - 10^11 Msun. The FeII* and MgII emitters follow the galaxy main sequence, but with a clear dichotomy. Galaxies with masses below 10^9 Msun and star formation rates (SFRs) of <1 Msun/year have MgII emission without accompanying FeII* emission, whereas galaxies with masses above 10^10 Msun and SFRs >10 Msun/year have FeII* emission without accompanying MgII emission. Between these two regimes, galaxies have both MgII and FeII* emission, typically with MgII P-Cygni profiles. Indeed, the MgII profile shows a progression along the main sequence from pure emission to P-Cygni profiles to strong absorption, due to resonant trapping. Combining the deep MUSE data with HST ancillary information, we find that galaxies with pure MgII emission profiles have lower star formation rate surface densities than those with either MgII P-Cygni profiles or FeII* emission. These spectral signatures produced through continuum scattering and fluorescence, MgII P-Cygni profiles and FeII* emission, are better candidates for tracing galactic outflows than pure MgII emission, which may originate from HII regions. We compare the absorption and emission rest-frame equivalent widths for pairs of FeII transitions to predictions from outflow models and find that the observations consistently have less total re-emission than absorption, suggesting either dust extinction or non-isotropic outflow geometries.
Lyman-alpha (Lya) photons that escape the interstellar medium of star-forming galaxies may be resonantly scattered by neutral hydrogen atoms in the circumgalactic and intergalactic media, thereby increasing the angular extent of the galaxys Lya emission. We present predictions of this extended, low surface brightness Lya emission based on radiative transfer modeling in a cosmological reionization simulation. The extended emission can be detected from stacked narrowband images of Lya emitters (LAEs) or of Lyman break galaxies (LBGs). Its average surface brightness profile has a central cusp, then flattens to an approximate plateau beginning at an inner characteristic scale below ~0.2 Mpc (comoving), then steepens again beyond an outer characteristic scale of ~1 Mpc. The inner scale marks the transition from scattered light of the central source to emission from clustered sources, while the outer scale marks the spatial extent of scattered emission from these clustered sources. Both scales tend to increase with halo mass, UV luminosity, and observed Lya luminosity. The extended emission predicted by our simulation is already within reach of deep narrowband photometry using large ground-based telescopes. Such observations would test radiative transfer models of emission from LAEs and LBGs, and they would open a new window on the circumgalactic environment of high-redshift star-forming galaxies.
The physical origin of the near-ultraviolet MgII emission remains an under-explored domain, contrary to more typical emission lines detected in the spectra of star-forming galaxies. We explore the nebular and physical properties for a sample of 381 galaxies between 0.70 < z < 2.34 drawn from the MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Survey. The spectra of these galaxies show a wide variety of profiles of the MgII 2796,2803 resonant doublet, from absorption to emission. We present a study on the main drivers for the detection of MgII emission in galaxy spectra. By exploiting photoionization models we verified that the emission-line ratios observed in galaxies with MgII in emission are consistent with nebular emission from HII regions. From a simultaneous analysis of MUSE spectra and ancillary HST information via spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting, we find that galaxies with MgII in emission have lower stellar masses, smaller sizes, bluer spectral slopes and lower optical depth than those with absorption. This leads us to suggest that MgII emission is a potential tracer of physical conditions not merely related to those of the ionized gas. We show that these differences in MgII emission/absorption can be explained in terms of a higher dust and neutral gas content in the interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies showing MgII in absorption, confirming the extreme sensitivity of MgII to the presence of the neutral ISM. We conclude with an analogy between the MgII doublet and the Ly-alpha line, due to their resonant nature. Further investigations with current and future facilities, including JWST, are promising as the detection of MgII emission and its potential connection with Ly-alpha could provide new insights on the ISM content in the early Universe.
We identify an abundant population of extreme emission line galaxies (EELGs) at redshift z~1.7 in the Cosmic Assembly Near-IR Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) imaging from Hubble Space Telescope/Wide Field Camera 3 (HST/WFC3). 69 EELG candidates are selected by the large contribution of exceptionally bright emission lines to their near-infrared broad-band magnitudes. Supported by spectroscopic confirmation of strong [OIII] emission lines -- with rest-frame equivalent widths ~1000AA -- in the four candidates that have HST/WFC3 grism observations, we conclude that these objects are galaxies with 10^8 Msol in stellar mass, undergoing an enormous starburst phase with M_*/(dM_*/dt) of only ~15 Myr. These bursts may cause outflows that are strong enough to produce cored dark matter profiles in low-mass galaxies. The individual star formation rates and the co-moving number density (3.7x10^-4 Mpc^-3) can produce in ~4 Gyr much of the stellar mass density that is presently contained in 10^8-10^9 Msol dwarf galaxies. Therefore, our observations provide a strong indication that many or even most of the stars in present-day dwarf galaxies formed in strong, short-lived bursts, mostly at z>1.