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Register a new userDeficiency of large equivalent width Lyman-alpha emission in luminous Lyman break galaxies at z~5-6?
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Masataka Ando
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We report a deficiency of luminous Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) with a large rest-frame equivalent width (EW_rest) of Lyman-alpha emission at z~5-6. Combining our spectroscopic sample of LBGs at z~5 and those from the literature, we found that luminous LBGs at z~5-6 generally show weak Lyman-alpha emissions, while faint LBGs show a wide range of Lyman-alpha EW_rest and tend to have strong (EW_rest >20A) Lyman-alpha emissions; i.e., there is a deficiency of strong Lyman-alpha emission in luminous LBGs. There seems to be a threshold UV luminosity for the deficiency; it is M_1400 = -21.5 ~ -21.0 mag, which is close to or somewhat brighter than the M* of the UV luminosity function at z~5 and 6. Since the large EW_rest of Lyman-alpha emission can be seen among the faint LBGs, the fraction of Lyman-alpha emitters in LBGs may change rather abruptly with the UV luminosity. If the weakness of Lyman-alpha emission is due to dust absorption, the deficiency suggests that luminous LBGs at z=5-6 tend to be in dusty and more chemically evolved environments and started star formation earlier than faint ones, though other causes cannot be ruled out.
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We study the properties of Lyman-alpha emitters (LAEs) and Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) at z=3-6 using cosmological SPH simulations. We investigate two simple scenarios for explaining the observed Ly-a and rest-frame UV luminosity functions (LFs) of LAEs: (i) the escape fraction scenario, in which the effective escape fraction (including the IGM attenuation) of Ly-a photons is f_Lya ~0.1 (0.15) at z=3 (6), and (ii) the stochastic scenario, in which the fraction of LAEs that are turned on at z=3 (6) is Cstoc ~0.07 (0.2) after correcting for the IGM attenuation. Our comparisons with a number of different observations suggest that the stochastic scenario is preferred over the escape fraction scenario. We find that the mean values of stellar mass, metallicity and black hole mass hosted by LAEs are all smaller in the stochastic scenario than in the escape fraction scenario. In our simulations, the galaxy stellar mass function evolves rapidly, as expected in hierarchical structure formation. However, its evolution is largely compensated by a beginning decline in the specific star formation rate, resulting in little evolution of the rest-frame UV LF from z=6 to 3. The rest-frame UV LF of both LAEs and LBGs at z=3 & 6 can be described well by the stochastic scenario provided the extinction is moderate, E(B-V) ~0.15, for both populations, although our simulation might be overpredicting the number of bright LBGs at z=6. We also discuss the correlation function and bias of LAEs. The Ly-a LFs at z=6 in a field-of-view of 0.2 deg^2 show a significantly larger scatter owing to cosmic variance relative to that in a 1 deg^2 field, and the scatter seen in the current observational estimates of the Ly-a LF can be accounted for by cosmic variance.
We have discovered six galaxies with spectroscopically confirmed redshifts of 4.8<z<5.8 in a single 44 square arcminute field imaged deeply in R, I and z-bands. All the spectra show an emission-line in the region around 7000-8400 angstroms with a spectroscopically-detected faint continuum break across the line. These six were drawn from 13 sources with I_AB<26.2 and R_AB-I_AB>1.5 in the field, this photometric cut designed to select galaxies at z>4.8. The line fluxes range between 0.2 to 2.5 x 10^-17 ergs cm^-2 s^-1 indicating luminosities of around 10^42-43 ergs s^-1 for Ly-alpha and their high emission line equivalent widths suggest very young ages (<10^8 yrs). A further line-emitting object with no detectable continuum was serendipitously detected by spectroscopy. If this line is Ly-alpha then it is from a source at z=6.6, making this the most distant galaxy known. However, the redshift cannot be considered secure as it is based on a single line. No broad emission line objects (quasars) were detected. The 13 sources at I_AB<26.2 are less than that expected if the luminosity function of dropout galaxies remained unchanged between z=3 and z=6, although the deficit is not highly significant given possible cosmic variance. The UV luminosity density from galaxies brighter than our flux limit is considerably less than that necessary to keep the volume probed by our field at <z>~5.3 ionized. These galaxies are observed within several hundred Myr of the end of the epoch of reionization (z=6-7), with little time for the luminosity function to evolve. This, and the lack of detected quasars, imply that the bulk of the UV flux that reionized the universe came from faint galaxies with M_(1700 ang)>-21.
(abridged) We present results of a search for Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at z ~ 5 in a 618 square-arcmin field including the HDF-N taken by Subaru Prime Focus Camera. Utilizing the published redshift data of the HDF-N and its flanking fields, the color selection criteria are chosen so that LBGs are picked out most efficiently and least contaminated by foreground objects. The numbers of LBG candidates detected are 310 in 23.0 < I_c < 25.5. The rest-frame UV luminosity function(LF) of LBGs at z ~ 5 is derived statistically. The fraction of contamination is estimated to be ~50% in the faintest magnitude range. The completeness of the survey is ~80% at the bright part of the sample, and ~20% in the faintest magnitude range (25.0 < I_c <= 25.5). The LF of LBG candidates at z ~ 5 does not show a significant difference from those at z ~ 3 and 4, though there might be a slight decrease in the fainter part. The UV luminosity density within the observational limit is 0.56 - 0.69 times smaller than that obtained for LBGs at z ~ 3, depending on the adopted cosmology and the integration range of the LF. The similarity of the LFs at redshifts 5 to 3 implies that most of LBGs at z ~ 5 should have faded out at z ~ 3 and LBGs at z ~ 5 are different galaxies from those seen at z ~ 3, if we take face values for ages of the LBGs at z ~ 3 obtained by the SED fitting in which a continuous star formation in an individual galaxy is assumed. However, if the star formation in LBGs is sporadic, the similarity of the LF at z ~ 3 and 5 would be explained. Such sporadic star formation has been suggested by hydrodynamical simulations and semi-analytic models with collisional starbursts, and the trend of the cosmic star formation history predicted by these studies resembles to that estimated from the UV luminosity density within the observational limit.
We present new information on galaxies in the vicinity of luminous radio galaxies and quasars at z=4,5,6. These fields were previously found to contain overdensities of Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) or spectroscopic Lyman alpha emitters. We use HST and Spitzer data to infer stellar masses, and contrast our results with large samples of LBGs in more average environments as probed by the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS). The following results were obtained. First, LBGs in both overdense regions and in the field at z=4-5 lie on a very similar sequence in a z-[3.6] versus [3.6] color-magnitude diagram. This is interpreted as a sequence in stellar mass (log[M*/Msun] = 9-11) in which galaxies become increasingly red due to dust and age as their star formation rate (SFR) increases. Second, the two radio galaxies are among the most massive objects (log[M*/Msun]~11) known to exist at z~4-5, and are extremely rare based on the low number density of such objects as estimated from the ~25x larger area GOODS survey. We suggest that the presence of these massive galaxies and supermassive black holes has been boosted through rapid accretion of gas or merging inside overdense regions. Third, the total stellar mass found in the z=4 ``proto-cluster TN1338 accounts for <30% of the stellar mass on the cluster red sequence expected to have formed at z>4, based on a comparison with the massive X-ray cluster Cl1252 at z=1.2. Although future near-infrared observations should determine whether any massive galaxies are currently being missed, one possible explanation for this mass difference is that TN1338 evolves into a smaller cluster than Cl1252. This raises the interesting question of whether the most massive protocluster regions at z>4 remain yet to be discovered.
We use deep GALEX images of CDFS in UV to define the first large sample of 420 Lyman Break Galaxies at z~1. We use a PSF fitting to estimate UV magnitudes on these deep crowded images. Deep Spitzer IRAC and MIPS provide the first detection of a large sample of Lyman Break Galaxies in the mid- to far-infrared range. We are therefore able to study and compare the UV and TIR emission of Lyman Break Galaxies. We find that about 15% of the LBG sample are strong emitters at 24 microns (Red LBGs). Most of them are Luminous IR Galaxies (LIRGs) while the rest (Blue LBGs) are undetected at the 83 microJy level of MIPS GTO image. We find that Blue LBGs have a Spectral Energy Distribution similar to high redshift Lyman Break Galaxies. Finally, the dust-to-FUV ratio of this sample is compared with similar ratios at z=1 and z~2. This work suggests an evolution (decrease) of the dust-to-FUV ratio with the redshift.
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