The Astrophysical Journal (Jan 2024)
Absorption Troughs of Lyα Emitters in HETDEX
- Laurel H. Weiss,
- Dustin Davis,
- Karl Gebhardt,
- Simon Gazagnes,
- Mahan Mirza Khanlari,
- Erin Mentuch Cooper,
- John Chisholm,
- Danielle Berg,
- William P. Bowman,
- Chris Byrohl,
- Robin Ciardullo,
- Maximilian Fabricius,
- Daniel Farrow,
- Caryl Gronwall,
- Gary J. Hill,
- Lindsay R. House,
- Donghui Jeong,
- Hasti Khoraminezhad,
- Wolfram Kollatschny,
- Eiichiro Komatsu,
- Maja Lujan Niemeyer,
- Shun Saito,
- Donald P. Schneider,
- Gregory R. Zeimann
Affiliations
- Laurel H. Weiss
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , 2515 Speedway Boulevard, Stop C1400, Austin, TX 78712, USA
- Dustin Davis
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , 2515 Speedway Boulevard, Stop C1400, Austin, TX 78712, USA
- Karl Gebhardt
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , 2515 Speedway Boulevard, Stop C1400, Austin, TX 78712, USA
- Simon Gazagnes
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , 2515 Speedway Boulevard, Stop C1400, Austin, TX 78712, USA
- Mahan Mirza Khanlari
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , 2515 Speedway Boulevard, Stop C1400, Austin, TX 78712, USA
- Erin Mentuch Cooper
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , 2515 Speedway Boulevard, Stop C1400, Austin, TX 78712, USA
- John Chisholm
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , 2515 Speedway Boulevard, Stop C1400, Austin, TX 78712, USA
- Danielle Berg
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , 2515 Speedway Boulevard, Stop C1400, Austin, TX 78712, USA
- William P. Bowman
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, Yale University , New Haven, CT 06511, USA
- Chris Byrohl
- ORCiD
- Universitäts Heidelberg , Zentrum für Astronomie, Institut für Theoretische Astrophysik, Albert-Ueberle-Str. 2, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
- Robin Ciardullo
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA
- Maximilian Fabricius
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik , Gießenbachstraße 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany; Universitäts-Sternwarte München , Scheinerstraße 1, D-81679 München, Germany
- Daniel Farrow
- ORCiD
- Centre of Excellence for Data Science, Artificial Intelligence & Modeling (DAIM), University of Hull , Cottingham Road, Hull, HU6 7RX, UK; E.A. Milne Centre for Astrophysics University of Hull , Cottingham Road, Hull, HU6 7RX, UK
- Caryl Gronwall
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA
- Gary J. Hill
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , 2515 Speedway Boulevard, Stop C1400, Austin, TX 78712, USA; McDonald Observatory, The University of Texas at Austin , 2515 Speedway Boulevard, Stop C1402, Austin, TX 78712, USA
- Lindsay R. House
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin , 2515 Speedway Boulevard, Stop C1400, Austin, TX 78712, USA
- Donghui Jeong
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA
- Hasti Khoraminezhad
- ORCiD
- Institute for Multi-messenger Astrophysics and Cosmology, Department of Physics, Missouri University of Science and Technology , 1315 N Pine Street, Rolla, MO 65409, USA
- Wolfram Kollatschny
- ORCiD
- Institut für Astrophysik and Geophysik, Universität Göttingen , Friedrich-Hund Platz 1, D-37077 Göttingen, Germany
- Eiichiro Komatsu
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik , Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, D-85741 Garching, Germany; Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München , Schellingstr. 4, D-80799 München, Germany; Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU, WPI), University of Tokyo , Chiba 277-8582, Japan
- Maja Lujan Niemeyer
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik , Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, D-85741 Garching, Germany
- Shun Saito
- ORCiD
- Institute for Multi-messenger Astrophysics and Cosmology, Department of Physics, Missouri University of Science and Technology , 1315 N Pine Street, Rolla, MO 65409, USA; Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Kavli IPMU, WPI), University of Tokyo , Chiba 277-8582, Japan
- Donald P. Schneider
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA; Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA 16802, USA
- Gregory R. Zeimann
- ORCiD
- Hobby–Eberly Telescope, University of Texas, Austin , Austin, TX 78712, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad1b51
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 962,
no. 2
p. 102
Abstract
The Hobby–Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) is designed to detect and measure the redshifts of more than 1 million Ly α emitting galaxies (LAEs) 1.88 < z < 3.52. In addition to its cosmological measurements, these data enable studies of Ly α spectral profiles and the underlying radiative transfer. Using the roughly half a million LAEs in the HETDEX Data Release 3, we stack various subsets to obtain the typical Ly α profile for the z ∼ 2–3 epoch and to understand their physical properties. We find clear absorption wings around Ly α emission, which extend ∼2000 km s ^−1 both redward and blueward of the central line. Using far-UV spectra of nearby (0.002 < z < 0.182) LAEs in the COS Legacy Archive Spectroscopic Survey treasury and optical/near-IR spectra of 2.8 < z < 6.7 LAEs in the Multi Unit Spectroscopic-Wide survey, we observe absorption profiles in both redshift regimes. Dividing the sample by volume density shows that the troughs increase in higher-density regions. This trend suggests that the depth of the absorption is dependent on the local density of objects near the LAE, a geometry that is similar to damped Ly α systems. Simple simulations of Ly α radiative transfer can produce similar troughs due to absorption of light from background sources by H i gas surrounding the LAEs.
Keywords
