ALBERT

Description: Deep optical spectroscopic surveys of galaxies provide a unique opportunity to investigate rest-frame ultra-violet (UV) emission line properties of galaxies at z ∼ 2 − 4.5. Here we combine VLT/MUSE Guaranteed Time Observations of the Hubble Deep Field South, Ultra Deep Field, COSMOS, and several quasar fields with other publicly available data from VLT/VIMOS and VLT/FORS2 to construct a catalogue of He II λ1640 emitters at z ≳ 2. The deepest areas of our MUSE pointings reach a 3σ line flux limit of 3.1 × 10−19 erg s−1 cm−2. After discarding broad-line active galactic nuclei, we find 13 He II λ1640 detections from MUSE with a median MUV = −20.1 and 21 tentative He II λ1640 detections from other public surveys. Excluding Lyα, all except two galaxies in our sample show at least one other rest-UV emission line, with C III] λ1907, λ1909 being the most prominent. We use multi-wavelength data available in the Hubble legacy fields to derive basic galaxy properties of our sample through spectral energy distribution fitting techniques. Taking advantage of the high-quality spectra obtained by MUSE (∼10 − 30 h of exposure time per pointing), we use photo-ionisation models to study the rest-UV emission line diagnostics of the He II λ1640 emitters. Line ratios of our sample can be reproduced by moderately sub-solar photo-ionisation models, however, we find that including effects of binary stars lead to degeneracies in most free parameters. Even after considering extra ionising photons produced by extreme sub-solar metallicity binary stellar models, photo-ionisation models are unable to reproduce rest-frame He II λ1640 equivalent widths (∼0.2 − 10 Å), thus additional mechanisms are necessary in models to match the observed He II λ1640 properties.

Description: We present spatially resolved maps of six individually-detected Lyman α haloes (LAHs) as well as a first statistical analysis of the Lyman α (Lyα) spectral signature in the circum-galactic medium of high-redshift star-forming galaxies (−17.5 〉  MUV 〉  −21.5) using the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer. Our resolved spectroscopic analysis of the LAHs reveals significant intrahalo variations of the Lyα line profile. Using a three-dimensional two-component model for the Lyα emission, we measured the full width at half maximum (FWHM), the peak velocity shift, and the asymmetry of the Lyα line in the core and in the halo of 19 galaxies. We find that the Lyα line shape is statistically different in the halo compared to the core (in terms of width, peak wavelength, and asymmetry) for ≈40% of our galaxies. Similarly to object-by-object based studies and a recent resolved study using lensing, we find a correlation between the peak velocity shift and the width of the Lyα line both at the interstellar and circum-galactic scales. This trend has been predicted by radiative transfer simulations of galactic winds as a result of resonant scattering in outflows. While there is a lack of correlation between the spectral properties and the spatial scale lengths of our LAHs, we find a correlation between the width of the line in the LAH and the halo flux fraction. Interestingly, UV bright galaxies (MUV 〈  −20) show broader, more redshifted, and less asymmetric Lyα lines in their haloes. The most significant correlation found is for the FWHM of the line and the UV continuum slope of the galaxy, suggesting that the redder galaxies have broader Lyα lines. The generally broad and red line shapes found in the halo component suggest that the Lyα haloes are powered either by scattering processes through an outflowing medium, fluorescent emission from outflowing cold clumps of gas, or a mix of both. Considering the large diversity of the Lyα line profiles observed in our sample and the lack of strong correlation, the interpretation of our results is still broadly open and underlines the need for realistic spatially resolved models of the LAHs.

Description: Distant luminous Lyman-α emitters (LAEs) are excellent targets for spectroscopic observations of galaxies in the epoch of reionisation (EoR). We present deep high-resolution (R = 5000) VLT/X-shooter observations, along with an extensive collection of photometric data of COLA1, a proposed double peaked LAE at z = 6.6. We rule out the possibility that COLA1’s emission line is an [OII] doublet at z = 1.475 on the basis of i) the asymmetric red line-profile and flux ratio of the peaks (blue/red=0.31 ± 0.03) and ii) an unphysical [OII]/Hα ratio ([OII]/Hα 〉  22). We show that COLA1’s observed B-band flux is explained by a faint extended foreground LAE, for which we detect Lyα and [OIII] at z = 2.142. We thus conclude that COLA1 is a real double-peaked LAE at z = 6.593, the first discovered at z 〉  6. COLA1 is UV luminous (M1500 = −21.6 ± 0.3), has a high equivalent width (EW0,Lyα = 120−40+50 Å) and very compact Lyα emission (r50,Lyα = 0.33−0.04+0.07 kpc). Relatively weak inferred Hβ+[OIII] line-emission from Spitzer/IRAC indicates an extremely low metallicity of Z 〈  1/20 Z⊙ or reduced strength of nebular lines due to high escape of ionising photons. The small Lyα peak separation of 220 ± 20 km s−1 implies a low HI column density and an ionising photon escape fraction of ≈15 − 30%, providing the first direct evidence that such galaxies contribute actively to the reionisation of the Universe at z 〉  6. Based on simple estimates, we find that COLA1 could have provided just enough photons to reionise its own ≈0.3 pMpc (2.3 cMpc) bubble, allowing the blue Lyα line to be observed. However, we also discuss alternative scenarios explaining the detected double peaked nature of COLA1. Our results show that future high-resolution observations of statistical samples of double peaked LAEs at z 〉  5 are a promising probe of the occurrence of ionised regions around galaxies in the EoR.

Description: Lyman-α (Lyα) is intrinsically the brightest line emitted from active galaxies. While it originates from many physical processes, for star-forming galaxies the intrinsic Lyα luminosity is a direct tracer of the Lyman-continuum (LyC) radiation produced by the most massive O- and early-type B-stars (M⋆ ≳ 10 M⊙) with lifetimes of a few Myrs. As such, Lyα luminosity should be an excellent instantaneous star formation rate (SFR) indicator. However, its resonant nature and susceptibility to dust as a rest-frame UV photon makes Lyα very hard to interpret due to the uncertain Lyα escape fraction, fesc, Lyα. Here we explore results from the CAlibrating LYMan-α with Hα (CALYMHA) survey at z = 2.2, follow-up of Lyα emitters (LAEs) at z = 2.2 − 2.6 and a z ∼ 0−0.3 compilation of LAEs to directly measure fesc, Lyα with Hα. We derive a simple empirical relation that robustly retrieves fesc, Lyα as a function of Lyα rest-frame EW (EW0): fesc,Lyα = 0.0048 EW0[Å] ± 0.05 and we show that it constrains a well-defined anti-correlation between ionisation efficiency (ξion) and dust extinction in LAEs. Observed Lyα luminosities and EW0 are easy measurable quantities at high redshift, thus making our relation a practical tool to estimate intrinsic Lyα and LyC luminosities under well controlled and simple assumptions. Our results allow observed Lyα luminosities to be used to compute SFRs for LAEs at z ∼ 0−2.6 within ±0.2 dex of the Hα dust corrected SFRs. We apply our empirical SFR(Lyα,EW0) calibration to several sources at z ≥ 2.6 to find that star-forming LAEs have SFRs typically ranging from 0.1 to 20 M⊙ yr−1 and that our calibration might be even applicable for the most luminous LAEs within the epoch of re-ionisation. Our results imply high ionisation efficiencies (log10[ξion/Hz erg−1] = 25.4−25.6) and low dust content in LAEs across cosmic time, and will be easily tested with future observations with JWST which can obtain Hα and Hβ measurements for high-redshift LAEs.

Description: Context. The Lyα emitter (LAE) fraction, XLAE, is a potentially powerful probe of the evolution of the intergalactic neutral hydrogen gas fraction. However, uncertainties in the measurement of XLAE are still under debate. Aims. Thanks to deep data obtained with the integral field spectrograph Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE), we can measure the evolution of the LAE fraction homogeneously over a wide redshift range of z ≈ 3–6 for UV-faint galaxies (down to UV magnitudes of M1500 ≈ −17.75). This is a significantly fainter range than in former studies (M1500 ≤ −18.75) and it allows us to probe the bulk of the population of high-redshift star-forming galaxies. Methods. We constructed a UV-complete photometric-redshift sample following UV luminosity functions and measured the Lyα emission with MUSE using the latest (second) data release from the MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey. Results. We derived the redshift evolution of XLAE for M1500 ∈ [ − 21.75; −17.75] for the first time with a equivalent width range EW(Lyα) ≥ 65 Å and found low values of XLAE ≲ 30% at z ≲ 6. The best-fit linear relation is XLAE = 0.07+0.06−0.03z − 0.22+0.12−0.24. For M1500 ∈ [ − 20.25; −18.75] and EW(Lyα) ≥ 25 Å, our XLAE values are consistent with those in the literature within 1σ at z ≲ 5, but our median values are systematically lower than reported values over the whole redshift range. In addition, we do not find a significant dependence of XLAE on M1500 for EW(Lyα) ≥ 50 Å at z ≈ 3–4, in contrast with previous work. The differences in XLAE mainly arise from selection biases for Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) in the literature: UV-faint LBGs are more easily selected if they have strong Lyα emission, hence XLAE is biased towards higher values when those samples are used. Conclusions. Our results suggest either a lower increase of XLAE towards z ≈ 6 than previously suggested, or even a turnover of XLAE at z ≈ 5.5, which may be the signature of a late or patchy reionization process. We compared our results with predictions from a cosmological galaxy evolution model. We find that a model with a bursty star formation (SF) can reproduce our observed LAE fractions much better than models where SF is a smooth function of time.

Description: We investigated the ultraviolet (UV) spectral properties of faint Lyman-α emitters (LAEs) in the redshift range 2.9 ≤ z ≤ 4.6, and we provide material to prepare future observations of the faint Universe. We used data from the MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Survey to construct mean rest-frame spectra of continuum-faint (median MUV of −18 and down to MUV of −16), low stellar mass (median value of 108.4 M⊙ and down to 107 M⊙) LAEs at redshift z ≳ 3. We computed various averaged spectra of LAEs, subsampled on the basis of their observational (e.g., Lyα strength, UV magnitude and spectral slope) and physical (e.g., stellar mass and star-formation rate) properties. We searched for UV spectral features other than Lyα, such as higher ionization nebular emission lines and absorption features. We successfully observed the O III]λ1666 and [C III]λ1907+C III]λ1909 collisionally excited emission lines and the He IIλ1640 recombination feature, as well as the resonant C IVλλ1548,1551 doublet either in emission or P-Cygni. We compared the observed spectral properties of the different mean spectra and find the emission lines to vary with the observational and physical properties of the LAEs. In particular, the mean spectra of LAEs with larger Lyα equivalent widths, fainter UV magnitudes, bluer UV spectral slopes, and lower stellar masses show the strongest nebular emission. The line ratios of these lines are similar to those measured in the spectra of local metal-poor galaxies, while their equivalent widths are weaker compared to the handful of extreme values detected in individual spectra of z 〉  2 galaxies. This suggests that weak UV features are likely ubiquitous in high z, low-mass, and faint LAEs. We publicly released the stacked spectra, as they can serve as empirical templates for the design of future observations, such as those with the James Webb Space Telescope and the Extremely Large Telescope.