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Ly$\alpha$ Emitters with Very Large Ly$\alpha$ Equivalent Widths, EW$_0$(Ly$\alpha$) $200-400$ \AA, at $z2$

, , , , , , , , and .
(2016)cite arxiv:1611.00777Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS; 23 pages with 16 figures.

Abstract

We present physical properties of spectroscopically confirmed Ly$\alpha$ emitters (LAEs) with very large rest-frame Ly$\alpha$ equivalent widths EW$_0$(Ly$\alpha$). Although the definition of large EW$_\rm 0$(Ly$\alpha$) LAEs is usually difficult due to limited statistical and systematic uncertainties, we identify six LAEs selected from $3000$ LAEs at $z2$ with reliable measurements of EW$_0$ (Ly$\alpha$) $\simeq 200-400$ \AA\ given by careful continuum determinations with our deep photometric and spectroscopic data. These large EW$_0$(Ly$\alpha$) LAEs do not have signatures of AGN, but notably small stellar masses of $M_* = 10^7-8$ $M_ødot$ and high specific star-formation rates (star formation rate per unit galaxy stellar mass) of $100$ Gyr$^-1$. These LAEs are characterized by the median values of $L(Ly\alpha)=3.7\times 10^42$ erg s$^-1$ and $M_UV=-18.0$ as well as the blue UV continuum slope of $= -2.5\pm0.2$ and the low dust extinction $E(B-V)_* = 0.02^+0.04_-0.02$, which indicate a high median Ly$\alpha$ escape fraction of $f_esc^Ly\alpha=0.68\pm0.30$. This large $f_esc^\rm Ly\alpha$ value is explained by the low Hi column density in the ISM that is consistent with FWHM of the Ly$\alpha$ line, $FWHM (Ly\alpha)=212\pm32$ km s$^-1$, significantly narrower than those of small EW$_0$(Ly$\alpha$) LAEs. Based on the stellar evolution models, our observational constraints of the large EW$_0$ (Ly$\alpha$), the small $\beta$, and the rest-frame Heii equivalent width imply that at least a half of our large EW$_0$(Ly$\alpha$) LAEs would have young stellar ages of $20$ Myr and very low metallicities of $Z<0.02 Z_ødot$ regardless of the star-formation history.

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