Average Metallicity and Star Formation Rate of Lya Emitters Probed by a Triple Narrow-Band Survey

Abstract

We present the average metallicity and star-formation rate of Lya emitters (LAEs) measured from our large-area survey with three narrow-band (NB) filters covering the Lya, [OII]3727, and Ha+[NII] lines of LAEs at z=2.2. We select 919 z=2.2 LAEs from Subaru/Suprime-Cam NB data in conjunction with Magellan/IMACS spectroscopy. Of these LAEs, 561 and 105 are observed with KPNO/NEWFIRM near-infrared NB filters whose central wavelengths are matched to redshifted [OII] and Ha nebular lines, respectively. By stacking the near-infrared images of the LAEs, we successfully obtain average nebular-line fluxes of LAEs, the majority of which are too faint to be identified individually by narrow-band imaging or deep spectroscopy. The stacked object has an Ha luminosity of 1.7x10^{42} erg s^{-1} corresponding to a star formation rate (SFR) of 14 M_{sun} yr^{-1}. We place, for the first time, a firm lower limit to the average metallicity of LAEs of Z>~0.09 Z_{sun} (2sigma) based on the [OII]/(Ha+[NII]) index together with photo-ionization models and empirical relations. This lower limit of metallicity rules out the hypothesis that LAEs, so far observed at z~2, are extremely metal poor (Z<2x10^{-2} Z_{sun}) young galaxies at the 4sigma level. This limit is higher than a simple extrapolation of the observed mass-metallicity relation of z~2 UV-selected galaxies toward lower masses (5x10^{8} M_{sun}), but roughly consistent with a recently proposed fundamental mass-metallicity relation when the LAEs' relatively low SFR is taken into account. The Ha and Lya luminosities of our NB-selected LAEs indicate that the escape fraction of Lya photons is ~12-30 %, much higher than the values derived for other galaxy populations at z~2.

21 pages, 15 figures, 8 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ

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