Published April 20, 2023 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

UV and Lyα Halos of Lyα Emitters across Environments at z = 2.84

  • 1. ROR icon National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
  • 2. ROR icon University of Tsukuba
  • 3. ROR icon The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI
  • 4. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 5. ROR icon Hokkaido University
  • 6. ROR icon Zhejiang University
  • 7. ROR icon University of Utah
  • 8. ROR icon Carnegie Observatories
  • 9. ROR icon University of Tokyo
  • 10. ROR icon Hosei University

Abstract

We present UV and Lyα radial surface brightness (SB) profiles of Lyα emitters (LAEs) at z = 2.84 detected with the Hyper Suprime-Cam on the Subaru Telescope. The depth of our data, together with the wide-field coverage including a protocluster, enable us to study the dependence of Lyα halos (LAHs) on various galaxy properties, including Mpc scale environments. UV and Lyα images of 3490 LAEs are extracted, and stacking the images yields SB sensitivity of ~ 1 x 10⁻²⁰ erg s⁻¹ cm⁻² arcsec⁻² in Lyα, reaching the expected level of optically thick gas illuminated by the UV background at z ∼ 3. Fitting of the two-component exponential function gives the scale-lengths of 1.56 ± 0.01 and 10.4 ± 0.3 pkpc. Dividing the sample according to their photometric properties, we find that, while the dependence of halo scale-length on environment outside of the protocluster core is not clear, LAEs in the central regions of protoclusters appear to have very large LAHs, which could be caused by combined effects of source overlapping and diffuse Lyα emission from cool intergalactic gas permeating the forming protocluster core irradiated by active members. For the first time, we identify UV halos around bright LAEs that are probably due to a few lower-mass satellite galaxies. Through comparison with recent numerical simulations, we conclude that, while scattered Lyα photons from the host galaxies are dominant, star formation in satellites evidently contributes to LAHs, and that fluorescent Lyα emission may be boosted within protocluster cores at cosmic noon and/or near bright QSOs.

Additional Information

© 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. This research is based on data collected at the Subaru Telescope, which is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. We are grateful to the anonymous referee for their careful reading and constructive comments and suggestions, Chris Byrohl for providing simulation data, and Haibin Zhang, Masafumi Yagi, Masayuki Umemura, Tadafumi Takata, Kazuhiro Shimasaku, Yusei Koyama, and Kazuhiro Hada for fruitful discussions. We thank Yukie Oishi and the HSC pipeline team for their helpful comments on HSC data analyses. We would like to acknowledge all who supported our observations at the Subaru Telescope, including the staff of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Maunakea Observatories, and the local Hawaiian people who have been making efforts to preserve and share the beautiful dark sky of Maunakea with us. We are honored and grateful for the opportunity of observing the universe from Maunakea, which has the cultural, historical, and natural significance in Hawaii. Data analysis was carried out on the Multi-wavelength Data Analysis System operated by the Astronomy Data Center (ADC), National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and on analysis servers at Center for Computational Astrophysics, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. S.K. acknowledges support from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI grant Nos. 18J11477, 19H00697 and the Course-by-Course Education Program of SOKENDAI. Y.M. acknowledges support from the JSPS KAKENHI grant Nos. 25287043, 17H04831, 17KK0098. C.C.S. acknowledges support by US NSF grant AST-2009278. Z.Z. acknowledges support by US NSF grant AST-2007499. Facility: Subaru (HSC). - Software: SExtractor (Bertin & Arnouts 1996), IRAF.

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Identifiers

Eprint ID
121662
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20230601-111032400.7

Funding

Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
18J11477
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
19H00697
Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI)
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
25287043
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
17H04831
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
17KK0098
NSF
AST-2009278
NSF
AST-2007499

Dates

Created
2023-06-28
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2023-06-28
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Astronomy Department