Abstract
Strong He II emission is produced by low-metallicity stellar populations and
in this study, we aim to identify and study a sample of He II 1640 emitting
galaxies at redshifts of z~2.5-5 in the deep VANDELS spectroscopic survey. We
identify a total of 33 Bright He II emitters (SNR>2.5) and 17 Faint emitters
(SNR<2.5) in the VANDELS survey. We use the available deep multiwavelength data
to study their physical properties. After identifying 7 potential AGN in our
sample and discarding them from further analysis, we divide the sample of
Bright emitters into 20 Narrow (FWHM < 1000 km/s) and 6 Broad (FWHM > 1000
km/s) He II emitters. We create stacks of Faint, Narrow and Broad emitters and
measure other rest-frame UV lines such as O III and C III in both individual
galaxies and stacks. We then compare the UV line ratios with the output of
stellar population synthesis models to study the ionising properties of He II
emitters. We do not see a significant difference between the stellar masses,
star-formation rates and rest-frame UV magnitudes of galaxies with He II and no
He II emission. The stellar population models reproduce the observed UV line
ratios from metals in a consistent manner, however they under-predict the total
number of He II ionising photons, confirming earlier studies and suggesting
that additional mechanisms capable of producing He II, such as X-ray binaries
or stripped stars are needed. The models favour sub-solar metallicites (0.1
Z_sun) and young stellar ages (10^6 - 10^7 years) for the He II emitters.
However, the metallicity measured for He II emitters is comparable to that of
non He II emitters at similar redshifts. We argue that galaxies with He II
emission may have undergone a recent star-formation event, or may be powered by
additional sources of He II ionisation.
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