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Register a new userA Spectroscopic Survey of Ly$alpha$ Emitters at $zapprox3.1$ over $sim$1.2 Deg$^2$
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We present a spectroscopic survey of Ly$alpha$ emitters (LAEs) at $zapprox3.1$ in the Subaru MM-Newton Deep Survey Field. This field has deep imaging data in a series of broad and narrow bands, including two adjacent narrow bands NB497 and NB503 that have allowed us to efficiently select LAE candidates at $zapprox3.1$. Using spectroscopic observations on MMT Hectospec and Magellan M2FS, we obtained a sample of 166 LAEs at $zapprox3.1$ over an effective area of $sim$1.2 deg$^2$, including 16 previously known LAEs. This is so far the largest (spectroscopically confirmed) sample of LAEs at this redshift. We make use of the secure redshifts and multi-band data to measure spectral properties such as Ly$alpha$ luminosity and rest-frame UV slope. We derive a robust Ly$alpha$ luminosity function (LF) that spans a luminosity range from $sim10^{42.0}$ to $>10^{43.5}$ erg s$^{-1}$. Significant overdense and underdense regions are detected in our sample, but the area coverage is wide enough to largely suppress the effect from such cosmic variance. Our Ly$alpha$ LF is generally consistent with those from previous studies at $z sim 3.1$. At the brightest end of the LF, there is a tentative detection of a density excess that is not well described by the Schechter function. The comparison with the LFs at other redshifts suggests that the Ly$alpha$ LF does not show significant evolution at $2<z<5$. Finally, we build the composite spectra of the LAEs and detect the NVI and CIV doublet emission lines at significance of $sim 4 sigma$, suggesting very hard radiation fields in (some of) these LAEs.
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We present rest-frame optical spectra of 60 faint ($R_{AB}sim 27$; $Lsim0.1 L_*$) Ly$alpha$-selected galaxies (LAEs) at $zapprox2.56$. The average LAE is consistent with the extreme low-metallicity end of the continuum-selected galaxy distribution at $zapprox2-3$. In particular, the LAEs have extremely high [OIII] $lambda$5008/H$beta$ ratios (log([OIII]/H$beta$) $sim$ 0.8) and low [NII] $lambda$6585/H$alpha$ ratios (log([NII]/H$alpha$) $<-1.15$). Using the [OIII] $lambda$4364 auroral line, we find that the star-forming regions in faint LAEs are characterized by high electron temperatures ($T_eapprox1.8times10^4$K), low oxygen abundances (12 + log(O/H) $approx$ 8.04, $Z_{neb}approx0.22Z_odot$), and high excitations with respect to more luminous galaxies. Our faintest LAEs have line ratios consistent with even lower metallicities, including six with 12 + log(O/H) $approx$ 6.9$-$7.4 ($Z_{neb}approx0.02-0.05Z_odot$). We interpret these observations in light of new models of stellar evolution (including binary interactions). We find that strong, hard ionizing continua are required to reproduce our observed line ratios, suggesting that faint galaxies are efficient producers of ionizing photons and important analogs of reionization-era galaxies. Furthermore, we investigate physical trends accompanying Ly$alpha$ emission across the largest current sample of combined Ly$alpha$ and rest-optical galaxy spectroscopy, including 60 faint LAEs and 368 more luminous galaxies at similar redshifts. We find that Ly$alpha$ emission is strongly correlated with nebular excitation and ionization and weakly correlated with dust attenuation, suggesting that metallicity plays a strong role in determining the observed properties of these galaxies by modulating their stellar spectra, nebular excitation, and dust content.
In this series of lectures, I review our observational understanding of high-$z$ Ly$alpha$ emitters (LAEs) and relevant scientific topics. Since the discovery of LAEs in the late 1990s, more than ten (one) thousand(s) of LAEs have been identified photometrically (spectroscopically) at $zsim 0$ to $zsim 10$. These large samples of LAEs are useful to address two major astrophysical issues, galaxy formation and cosmic reionization. Statistical studies have revealed the general picture of LAEs physical properties: young stellar populations, remarkable luminosity function evolutions, compact morphologies, highly ionized inter-stellar media (ISM) with low metal/dust contents, low masses of dark-matter halos. Typical LAEs represent low-mass high-$z$ galaxies, high-$z$ analogs of dwarf galaxies, some of which are thought to be candidates of population III galaxies. These observational studies have also pinpointed rare bright Ly$alpha$ sources extended over $sim 10-100$ kpc, dubbed Ly$alpha$ blobs, whose physical origins are under debate. LAEs are used as probes of cosmic reionization history through the Ly$alpha$ damping wing absorption given by the neutral hydrogen of the inter-galactic medium (IGM), which complement the cosmic microwave background radiation and 21cm observations. The low-mass and highly-ionized population of LAEs can be major sources of cosmic reionization. The budget of ionizing photons for cosmic reionization has been constrained, although there remain large observational uncertainties in the parameters. Beyond galaxy formation and cosmic reionization, several new usages of LAEs for science frontiers have been suggested such as the distribution of {sc Hi} gas in the circum-galactic medium and filaments of large-scale structures. On-going programs and future telescope projects, such as JWST, ELTs, and SKA, will push the horizons of the science frontiers.
We present the photometric determination of the bright-end (L_Lya>10^43.5 erg/s) of the Lya luminosity function (LF) within four redshifts windows in the interval 2.2<z<3.3. Our work is based on the Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) first data-release, which provides multiple narrow-band measurements over ~1000 deg^2, with limiting magnitude r~22. The analysis of high-z Lya-emitting sources over such a wide area is unprecedented, and allows to select a total of ~14,500 hyper-bright (L_Lya>10^43.3 erg/s) Lya-emitting candidates. We test our selection with two spectroscopic follow-up programs at the GTC telescope, confirming ~89% of the targets as line-emitting sources, with ~64% being genuine z~2.2 QSOs. We extend the 2.2<z<3.3 Lya LF for the first time above L_Lya~10^44 erg/s and down to densities of ~10^-8 Mpc^-3. Our results unveil with high detail the Schechter exponential-decay of the brightest-end of the Lya LF, complementing the power-law component of previous LF determinations at 43.3<Log_10(L_Lya / [erg/s])<44. We measure Phi^*=(3.33+-0.19)x10^-6, Log(L^*)=44.65+-0.65 and alpha=-1.35+-0.84 as an average over the redshifts we probe. These values are significantly different than the typical Schechter parameters measured for the Lya LF of high-z star-forming LAEs. This suggests that z>2 AGN/QSOs (likely dominant in our samples) are described by a structurally different LF than z>2 star-forming LAEs, namely with L^*_QSOs ~ 100 L^*_LAEs and Phi^*_QSOs ~ 10^-3 Phi^*_LAEs. Finally, our method identifies very efficiently as high-z line-emitters sources without previous spectroscopic confirmation, currently classified as stars (~2000 objects in each redshift bin, on average). Assuming a large predominance of Lya-emitting AGN/QSOs in our samples, this supports the scenario by which these are the most abundant class of z>2 Lya emitters at L_Lya>10^43.3 erg/s.
In this work we model the observed evolution in comoving number density of Lyman-alpha blobs (LABs) as a function of redshift, and try to find which mechanism of emission is dominant in LAB. Our model calculates LAB emission both from cooling radiation from the intergalactic gas accreting onto galaxies and from star formation (SF). We have used dark matter (DM) cosmological simulation to which we applied empirical recipes for Ly$alpha$ emission produced by cooling radiation and SF in every halo. In difference to the previous work, the simulated volume in the DM simulation is large enough to produce an average LABs number density. At a range of redshifts $zsim 1-7$ we compare our results with the observed luminosity functions of LABs and LAEs. Our cooling radiation luminosities appeared to be too small to explain LAB luminosities at all redshifts. In contrast, for SF we obtained a good agreement with observed LFs at all redshifts studied. We also discuss uncertainties which could influence the obtained results, and how LAB LFs could be related to each other in fields with different density.
We measure the Ly$alpha$ escape fraction of 935 [OIII]-emitting galaxies between $1.9 < z < 2.35$ by comparing stacked spectra from the Hubble Space Telescope/WFC3s near-IR grism to corresponding stacks from the Hobby Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiments Internal Data Release 2. By measuring the stacks H$beta$ to Ly$alpha$ ratios, we determine the Ly$alpha$ escape fraction as a function of stellar mass, star formation rate, internal reddening, size, and [OIII]/H$beta$ ratio. We show that the escape fraction of Ly$alpha$ correlates with a number of parameters, such as galaxy size, star formation rate, and nebular excitation. However, we also demonstrate that most of these relations are indirect, and the primary variables that control the escape of Ly$alpha$ are likely stellar mass and internal extinction. Overall, the escape of Ly$alpha$ declines from $gtrsim 18%$ in galaxies with $log M/M_{odot} lesssim 9$ to $lesssim 1%$ for systems with $log M/M_{odot} gtrsim 10$, with the samples mean escape fraction being $6.0^{+0.6%}_{-0.5%}$.
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