| 2. |
- Mas-Hesse, J. M., et al.
(författare)
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Local Lyman alpha emitters and their relevance to high-redshift star-forming galaxies
- 2009
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Ingår i: Astrophysics and Space Science. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0004-640X .- 1572-946X. ; 320:1-3, s. 35-38
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Ly alpha line is an important diagnostic of star formation and activity in galaxies. The analysis of Ly alpha is complicated due to the resonant nature of the line and radiative transfer effects. High spectral resolution studies of local starburst galaxies with the unprecedented UV capabilities of the HST have shown that this line is either seen in absorption or in emission and in the latter case with a P Cygni profile indicative of a large scale outflow of neutral gas. Moreover, HST imaging obtained with HST-ACS of a sample of 6 star-forming galaxies has revealed that a substantial fraction of the Ly alpha photons are diffused far away from the emissive knots. Since the importance of Ly alpha for tracing large scale structure, correlation functions, and galaxy formation is recognized, Ly alpha will remain a very important probe of the distant universe for the foreseeable future, and it is therefore imperative to acquire a better understanding of what mechanisms regulate our ability to detect this line.
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| 3. |
- Östlin, Göran, et al.
(författare)
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The Lyman alpha morphology of local starburst galaxies : release of calibrated images
- 2009
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Ingår i: Astronomical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-6256 .- 1538-3881. ; 138, s. 923-940
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present reduced and calibrated high resolution Lyman-alpha (Lyα) images for a sample of six local star-forming galaxies. Targets were selected to represent a range in luminosity and metallicity and to include both known Lyα emitters and nonemitters. Far ultraviolet imaging was carried out with the Solar Blind Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in the F122M (Lyα online) and F140LP (continuum) filters. The resulting Lyα images are the product of careful modeling of both the stellar and nebular continua, facilitated by supporting HST imaging at λ 2200, 3300, 4400, 5500, Hα, and 8000 Å, combined with Starburst 99 evolutionary synthesis models, and prescriptions for dust extinction on the continuum. In all, the resulting morphologies in Lyα, Hα, and UV continuum are qualitatively very different and we show that the bulk of Lyα emerges in a diffuse component resulting from resonant scattering events. Lyα escape fractions, computed from integrated Hα luminosities and recombination theory, are found never to exceed 14%. Internal dust extinction is estimated in each pixel and used to correct Lyα fluxes. However, the extinction corrections are far too small (by factors from 2.6 to infinity) to reconcile the emerging global Lyα luminosities with standard recombination predictions. Surprisingly, when comparing the global equivalent widths of Lyα and Hα, the two quantities appear to be anticorrelated, which may be due to the evolution of mechanical feedback from the starburst. This calls for caution in the interpretation of Lyα observations in terms of star formation rates. The images presented have a physical resolution 3 orders of magnitude better than attainable at high redshifts from the ground with current instrumentation and our images may therefore serve as useful templates for comparing with observations and modeling of primeval galaxy formation. We therefore provide the reduced Lyα, Hα, and continuum images to the community.
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