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Register a new userThe Lyman Alpha Reference Sample. VIII. Characterizing Lyman-Alpha Scattering in Nearby Galaxies
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We examine the dust geometry and Ly{alpha} scattering in the galaxies of the Lyman Alpha Reference Sample (LARS), a set of 14 nearby (0.02 < $z$ < 0.2) Ly{alpha} emitting and starbursting systems with Hubble Space Telescope Ly{alpha}, H{alpha}, and H{beta} imaging. We find that the global dust properties determined by line ratios are consistent with other studies, with some of the LARS galaxies exhibiting clumpy dust media while others of them show significantly lower Ly{alpha} emission compared to their Balmer decrement. With the LARS imaging, we present Ly{alpha}/H{alpha} and H{alpha}/H{beta} maps with spatial resolutions as low as $sim$ 40 pc, and use these data to show that in most galaxies, the dust geometry is best modeled by three distinct regions: a central core where dust acts as a screen, an annulus where dust is distributed in clumps, and an outer envelope where Ly{alpha} photons only scatter. We show that the dust that affects the escape of Ly{alpha} is more restricted to the galaxies central regions, while the larger Ly{alpha} halos are generated by scattering at large radii. We present an empirical modeling technique to quantify how much Ly{alpha} scatters in the halo, and find that this characteristic scattering distance correlates with the measured size of the Ly{alpha} halo. We note that there exists a slight anti-correlation between the scattering distance of Ly{alpha} and global dust properties.
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The Lyman Alpha Reference Sample (LARS) of 14 star-forming galaxies offers a wealth of insight into the workings of these local analogs to high-redshift star-forming galaxies. The sample has been well-studied in terms of LyA and other emission line properties, such as HI mass, gas kinematics, and morphology. We analyze deep surface photometry of the LARS sample in UBIK broadband imaging obtained at the Nordic Optical Telescope and the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, and juxtaposition their derived properties with a sample of local high-redshift galaxy analogs, namely, with blue compact galaxies (BCGs). We construct radial surface brightness and color profiles with both elliptical and isophotal integration, as well as RGB images, deep contours, color maps, a burst fraction estimate, and a radial mass-to-light ratio profile for each LARS galaxy. Standard morphological parameters like asymmetry, clumpiness, the Gini and M20 coefficients are [...] analyzed, as well as isophotal asymmetry profiles for each galaxy. [...] We compare the LARS to the properties of the BCG sample and highlight the differences. Several diagnostics indicate that the LARS galaxies have highly disturbed morphologies even at the level of the faintest isophotes [...]. The ground-based photometry [...] reveals previously unexplored isophotes [...]. The burst fraction estimate suggests a spatially more extended burst region in LARS than in the BCGs. [...] The galaxies in the LARS sample appear to be in earlier stages of a merger event compared to the BCGs. Standard morphological diagnostics like asymmetry, clumpiness, Gini and M20 coefficients cannot separate the two samples, although an isophotal asymmetry profile successfully captures the average difference in morphology. These morphological diagnostics do not show any correlation with the equivalent width or the escape fraction of Lyman Alpha. [abridged]
We study young star-forming clumps on physical scales of 10-500 pc in the Lyman-Alpha Reference Sample (LARS), a collection of low-redshift (z = 0.03-0.2) UV-selected star-forming galaxies. In each of the 14 galaxies of the sample, we detect clumps for which we derive sizes and magnitudes in 5 UV-optical filters. The final sample includes $sim$1400 clumps, of which $sim$600 have magnitude uncertainties below 0.3 in all filters. The UV luminosity function for the total sample of clumps is described by a power-law with slope $alpha = -2.03^{+0.11}_{-0.13}$. Clumps in the LARS galaxies have on average $Sigma_{SFR}$ values higher than what observed in HII regions of local galaxies and comparable to typical SFR densities of clumps in z = 1-3 galaxies. We derive the clumpiness as the relative contribution from clumps to the UV emission of each galaxy, and study it as a function of galactic-scale properties, i.e. $Sigma_{SFR}$ and the ratio between rotational and dispersion velocities of the gas ($v_s/sigma_0$). We find that in galaxies with higher $Sigma_{SFR}$ or lower $v_s/sigma_0$, clumps dominate the UV emission of their host systems. All LARS galaxies with Ly$alpha$ escape fractions larger than 10% have more than 50% of the UV luminosity from clumps. We tested the robustness of these results against the effect of different physical resolutions. At low resolution, the measured clumpiness appears more elevated than if we could resolve clumps down to single clusters. This effect is small in the redshift range covered by LARS, thus our results are not driven by the physical resolution.
Ly$alpha$ photons scattered by neutral hydrogen atoms in the circumgalactic media or produced in the halos of star-forming galaxies are expected to lead to extended Ly$alpha$ emission around galaxies. Such low surface brightness Ly$alpha$ halos (LAHs) have been detected by stacking Ly$alpha$ images of high-redshift star-forming galaxies. We study the origin of LAHs by performing radiative transfer modeling of nine $z=3.1$ Lyman-Alpha Emitters (LAEs) in a high resolution hydrodynamic cosmological galaxy formation simulation. We develop a method of computing the mean Ly$alpha$ surface brightness profile of each LAE by effectively integrating over many different observing directions. Without adjusting any parameters, our model yields an average Ly$alpha$ surface brightness profile in remarkable agreement with observations. We find that observed LAHs cannot be accounted for solely by photons originating from the central LAE and scattered to large radii by hydrogen atoms in the circumgalactic gas. Instead, Ly$alpha$ emission from regions in the outer halo is primarily responsible for producing the extended LAHs seen in observations, which potentially includes both star-forming and cooling radiation. With the limit on the star formation contribution set by the ultra-violet (UV) halo measurement, we find that cooling radiation can play an important role in forming the extended LAHs. We discuss the implications and caveats of such a picture.
We report on a search for ultraluminous Lyman alpha emitting galaxies (LAEs) at z=6.6 using the NB921 filter on Hyper Suprime-Cam on the Subaru telescope. We searched a 30 degree squared area around the North Ecliptic Pole, which we observed in broadband g, r, i, z, and y and narrowband NB816 and NB921, for sources with NB921 < 23.5 and z - NB921 > 1.3. This corresponds to a selection of log L(Ly-alpha) > 43.5 erg/s. We followed up seven candidate LAEs (out of thirteen) with the Keck DEIMOS spectrograph and confirmed five z=6.6 LAEs, one z=6.6 AGN with a broad Ly-alpha line and a strong red continuum, and one low-redshift ([OIII]5007) galaxy. The five ultraluminous LAEs have wider line profiles than lower luminosity LAEs, and one source, NEPLA4, has a complex line profile similar to that of COLA1. In combination with previous results, we show that the line profiles of the z=6.6 ultraluminous LAEs are systematically different than those of lower luminosity LAEs at this redshift. This result suggests that ultraluminous LAEs generate highly ionized regions of the intergalactic medium in their vicinity that allow the full Lyman alpha profile of the galaxy---including any blue wings---to be visible. If this interpretation is correct, then ultraluminous LAEs offer a unique opportunity to determine the properties of the ionized zones around them, which will help in understanding the ionization of the z ~ 7 intergalactic medium. A simple calculation gives a very rough estimate of 0.015 for the escape fraction of ionizing photons, but more sophisticated calculations are needed to fully characterize the uncertainties.
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