| 1. |
- Flury, Sophia R., et al.
(författare)
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The Low-redshift Lyman Continuum Survey. I. New, Diverse Local Lyman Continuum Emitters
- 2022
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0067-0049 .- 1538-4365. ; 260:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The origins of Lyman continuum (LyC) photons responsible for the reionization of the universe are as of yet unknown and highly contested. Detecting LyC photons from the Epoch of Reionization is not possible due to absorption by the intergalactic medium, which has prompted the development of several indirect diagnostics to infer the rate at which galaxies contribute LyC photons to reionize the universe by studying lower-redshift analogs. We present the Low-redshift Lyman Continuum Survey (LzLCS) comprising measurements made with the Hubble Space Telescope Cosmic Origins Spectrograph for a z = 0.2-0.4 sample of 66 galaxies. After careful processing of the far-UV spectra, we obtain a total of 35 Lyman continuum emitters (LCEs) detected with 97.725% confidence, nearly tripling the number of known local LCEs. We estimate escape fractions from the detected LyC flux and upper limits on the undetected LyC flux, finding a range of LyC escape fractions up to 50%. Of the 35 LzLCS LCEs, 12 have LyC escape fractions greater than 5%, more than doubling the number of known local LCEs with cosmologically relevant LyC escape.
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| 2. |
- Flury, Sophia R., et al.
(författare)
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The Low-redshift Lyman Continuum Survey. II. New Insights into LyC Diagnostics
- 2022
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 930:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Lyman continuum (LyC) cannot be observed at the epoch of reionization (z greater than or similar to 6) owing to intergalactic H i absorption. To identify LyC emitters (LCEs) and infer the fraction of escaping LyC, astronomers have developed various indirect diagnostics of LyC escape. Using measurements of the LyC from the Low-redshift Lyman Continuum Survey (LzLCS), we present the first statistical test of these diagnostics. While optical depth indicators based on Ly alpha, such as peak velocity separation and equivalent width, perform well, we also find that other diagnostics, such as the [O iii]/[O ii] flux ratio and star formation rate surface density, predict whether a galaxy is an LCE. The relationship between these galaxy properties and the fraction of escaping LyC flux suggests that LyC escape depends strongly on H i column density, ionization parameter, and stellar feedback. We find that LCEs occupy a range of stellar masses, metallicities, star formation histories, and ionization parameters, which may indicate episodic and/or different physical causes of LyC escape.
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| 3. |
- Mahler, Guillaume, et al.
(författare)
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Precision Modeling of JWST's First Cluster Lens SMACS J0723.3–7327
- 2023
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 945:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Exploiting the fundamentally achromatic nature of gravitational lensing, we present a lens model for the massive galaxy cluster SMACS J0723.3−7323 (SMACS J0723; z = 0.388) that significantly improves upon earlier work. Building on strong-lensing constraints identified in prior Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations, the mass model utilizes 21 multiple-image systems, 17 of which were newly discovered in Early Release Observation data from the JWST. The resulting lens model maps the cluster mass distribution to an rms spatial precision of 0 32, and is publicly available. Consistent with previous analyses, our study shows SMACS J0723.3 to be well described by a single large-scale component centered on the location of the brightest cluster galaxy. However, satisfying all lensing constraints provided by the JWST data, the model points to the need for the inclusion of an additional, diffuse component west of the cluster. A comparison of the galaxy, mass, and gas distributions in the core of SMACS J0723 based on HST, JWST, and Chandra data reveals a concentrated regular elliptical profile along with tell-tale signs of a recent merger, possibly proceeding almost along our line of sight. The exquisite sensitivity of JWST's NIRCam reveals in spectacular fashion both the extended intracluster light distribution and numerous star-forming clumps in magnified background galaxies. The high-precision lens model derived here for SMACS J0723 demonstrates the unprecedented power of combining HST and JWST data for studies of structure formation and evolution in the distant universe.
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| 4. |
- Sun, Fengwu, et al.
(författare)
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Extensive Lensing Survey of Optical and Near-infrared Dark Objects (El Sonido): HST H-faint Galaxies behind 101 Lensing Clusters
- 2021
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 1538-4357 .- 0004-637X. ; 922:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present a Spitzer/IRAC survey of H-faint (H-160 greater than or similar to 26.4, < 5 sigma) sources in 101 lensing cluster fields. Across a CANDELS/Wide-like survey area of similar to 648 arcmin(2) (effectively similar to 221 arcmin(2) in the source plane), we have securely discovered 53 sources in the IRAC Channel-2 band (CH2, 4.5 mu m; median CH2 = 22.46 +/- 0.11 AB mag) that lack robust HST/WFC3-IR F160W counterparts. The most remarkable source in our sample, namely ES-009 in the field of Abell 2813, is the brightest H-faint galaxy at 4.5 mu m known so far (CH2 = 20.48 +/- 0.03 AB mag). We show that the H-faint sources in our sample are massive (median M-star = 10 10.3 +/- 0.3 M-circle dot, star-forming (median star formation rate =1001 M-circle dot yr(-1)), and dust-obscured (A(v) = 2.6 +/- 0.3) galaxies around a median photometric redshift of z = 3.9 +/- 0.4. The stellar continua of 14 H-faint galaxies can be resolved in the CH2 band, suggesting a median circularized effective radius (R-e,R-circ; lensing corrected) of 1.9 +/- 0.2 kpc and <1.5 kpc for the resolved and whole samples, respectively. This is consistent with the sizes of massive unobscured galaxies at z similar to 4, indicating that H-faint galaxies represent the dusty tail of the distribution of a wider galaxy population. Comparing with the ALMA dust continuum sizes of similar galaxies reported previously, we conclude that the heavy dust obscuration in H-faint galaxies is related to the compactness of both stellar and dust continua (R-e,R-circ similar to 1 kpc). These H-faint galaxies make up 161 3 % of the galaxies in the stellar-mass range of 10(10) - 10(11.2) M-circle dot at z = 3 similar to 5, contributing to 8(-4)(+8)% of the cosmic star formation rate density in this epoch and likely tracing the early phase of massive galaxy formation.
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| 5. |
- Xu, Xinfeng, et al.
(författare)
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The Low-redshift Lyman Continuum Survey : Optically Thin and Thick Mg II Lines as Probes of Lyman Continuum Escape
- 2023
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 943:2
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Mg II λλ2796, 2803 doublet has been suggested as a useful indirect indicator for the escape of Lyα and Lyman continuum (LyC) photons in local star-forming galaxies. However, studies to date have focused on small samples of galaxies with strong Mg II or strong LyC emission. Here, we present the first study of Mg II to probe a large dynamic range of galaxy properties, using newly obtained high-signal-to-noise, moderate-resolution spectra of Mg II, for a sample of 34 galaxies selected from the Low-redshift Lyman Continuum Survey. We show that the galaxies in our sample have Mg II profiles ranging from strong emission to P-Cygni profiles to pure absorption. We find that there is a significant trend (with a possibility of spurious correlations of ∼2%) that galaxies that are detected as strong LyC emitters (LCEs) show larger equivalent widths of Mg II emission, while non-LCEs tend to show evidence of more scattering and absorption features in Mg II. We then find that Mg II strongly correlates with Lyα in both equivalent width and escape fraction, regardless of whether emission or absorption dominates the Mg II profiles. Furthermore, we show that, for galaxies that are categorized as Mg II emitters, one can use the information of Mg II, metallicity, and dust to estimate the escape fraction of LyC within a factor of ∼3. These findings confirm that Mg II lines can be used as a tool for selecting galaxies as LCEs and thus serve as an indirect indicator for the escape of Lyα and LyC.
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