FIR measurements of Ly-$\alpha$ emitters at z$\lesssim$1.0: dust attenuation from PACS-\emph{Herschel}

Abstract

One remaining open question regarding the physical properties of Ly$\alpha$ emitters (LAEs) is their dust content and its evolution with redshift. The variety of results is large and with those reported by now is difficult to establish clear relations between dust, other fundamental parameters of galaxies (star-formation rate, metallicity or age) and redshift. In this Letter, we report \emph{Herschel} PACS-100$\mu$m, PACS-160$\mu$m and \emph{Spitzer} MIPS-24$\mu$m detections of a sample of spectroscopically GALEX-selected LAEs at z$\sim$0.3 and $\sim$1.0. Five out of ten and one out of two LAEs are detected in, at least, one PACS band at z$\sim$0.3 and $\sim$1.0, respectively. These measurements have a great importance given that they allow us to quantify, for the first time, the dust content of LAEs from direct FIR observations. MIPS-24$\mu$m detections allow us to determine IR properties of the PACS-undetected LAEs. We obtain that mid-IR/FIR detected star-forming (SF) LAEs at z$\sim$0.3 have dust content within 0.75$\lesssim$ $A_{1200\mathring{A}}$ $\lesssim$2.0, with a median value of A${}_{1200\text{A˚}}$$\sim$1.1. This range broadens out to 0.75$\lesssim$ $A_{1200\mathring{A}}$ $\lesssim$2.5 when considering those LAEs at z$\sim$1.0. Only one SF LAE is undetected both in MIPS-24$\mu$m and PACS, with $A_{1200\mathring{A}}$ $\lesssim$0.75. These results seem to be larger than those reported for high-redshift LAEs and, therefore, although an evolutionary trend is not clearly seen, it could point out that low-redshift LAEs are dustier than high-redshift ones. However, the diverse methods used could introduce a systematic offset in the results.

Accepted for publication in ApJL

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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Far-infrared surveys of galaxy evolution
• A Comprehensive Study of Ly$\alpha$ Emission in the High-redshift Galaxy Population
• Characterizing the feedback of magnetic field on the differential rotation of solar-like stars
• PACS-Herschel FIR detections of Lyman-alpha emitters at 2.0<z<3.5
• The UV to FIR spectral energy distribution of star-forming galaxies in the redshift desert
• Lyman break and UV-selected galaxies at z ~ 1: II. PACS-100um/160um FIR detections
• Physical properties of Lyman-alpha emitters at $z\sim 0.3$ from UV-to-FIR measurements
• Trident: A three-pronged galaxy survey. I. Lyman alpha emitting galaxies at z~2 in GOODS North
• Lyman break and UV-selected galaxies at $z\sim 1$ I. Stellar populations from ALHAMBRA survey