HOW LYMAN ALPHA EMISSION DEPENDS ON GALAXY STELLAR MASS
ABSTRACT In this work, we show how the stellar mass (M*) of galaxies affects the 3 < z < 4.6 Ly equivalent width (EW) distribution. To this end, we design a sample of 629 galaxies in the M* range from the 3D-HST/CANDELS survey. We perform spectroscopic observations of this sample using the Mic...
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Published in | Astrophysical journal. Letters Vol. 821; no. 1; p. L14 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
The American Astronomical Society
10.04.2016
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | ABSTRACT In this work, we show how the stellar mass (M*) of galaxies affects the 3 < z < 4.6 Ly equivalent width (EW) distribution. To this end, we design a sample of 629 galaxies in the M* range from the 3D-HST/CANDELS survey. We perform spectroscopic observations of this sample using the Michigan/Magellan Fiber System, allowing us to measure Ly fluxes and use 3D-HST/CANDELS ancillary data. In order to study the Ly EW distribution dependence on M*, we split the whole sample in three stellar mass bins. We find that, in all bins, the distribution is best represented by an exponential profile of the form . Through a Bayesian analysis, we confirm that lower M* galaxies have higher Ly EWs. We also find that the fraction A of galaxies featuring emission and the e-folding scale W0 of the distribution anti-correlate with M*, recovering expressions of the forms and . These results are crucial for proper interpretation of Ly emission trends reported in the literature that may be affected by strong M* selection biases. |
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Bibliography: | LET33595 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 2041-8205 2041-8213 |
DOI: | 10.3847/2041-8205/821/1/L14 |