The effect of stellar evolution uncertainties on the rest-frame ultraviolet stellar lines of CIV and HeII in high-redshift Lyman-break galaxies

Abstract

Young, massive stars dominate the rest-frame ultraviolet spectra of star-forming galaxies. At high redshifts (z>2), these rest-UV features are shifted into the observed-frame optical and a combination of gravitational lensing, deep spectroscopy and spectral stacking analysis allows the stellar population characteristics of these sources to be investigated. We use our stellar population synthesis code BPASS to fit two strong rest-UV spectral features in published Lyman-break galaxy spectra, taking into account the effects of binary evolution on the stellar spectrum. In particular, we consider the effects of quasi-homogeneous evolution (arising from the rotational mixing of rapidly-rotating stars), metallicity and the relative abundance of carbon and oxygen on the observed strengths of HeII (1640 Angstroms) and CIV (1548,1551 Angstroms) spectral lines. We find that Lyman-break galaxy spectra at z=2-3 are best fit with moderately sub-solar metallicities, and with a depleted carbon-to-oxygen ratio. We also find that the spectra of the lowest metallicity sources are best fit with model spectra in which the HeII emission line is boosted by the inclusion of the effect of massive stars being spun-up during binary mass-transfer so these rapidly-rotating stars experiencing quasi-homogeneous evolution.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 12 pages, 11 figures, 2 pages

References in corpus (10)

• The propagation of uncertainties in stellar population synthesis modeling I: The relevance of uncertain aspects of stellar evolution and the IMF to the derived physical properties of galaxies
• Cold streams in early massive hot haloes as the main mode of galaxy formation
• The effect of massive binaries on stellar populations and supernova progenitors
• New insights into the stellar content and physical conditions of star-forming galaxies at z = 2-3 from spectral modelling
• The VLT-FLAMES survey of massive stars: constraints on stellar evolution from the chemical compositions of rapidly rotating Galactic and Magellanic Cloud B-type stars
• Binary star progenitors of long gamma-ray bursts
• The Cosmic Horseshoe: Discovery of an Einstein Ring around a Giant Luminous Red Galaxy
• The impact of nebular emission on the broadband fluxes of high-redshift galaxies
• Turning Back the Clock: Inferring the History of the Eight O'clock Arc
• On the reliability of CIV 1549 as an abundance indicator for high redshift star-forming galaxies

Cited by in corpus (122)

• Modeling the Panchromatic Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies
• Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis Version 2.1: construction, observational verification and new results
• De Re Metallica: The cosmic chemical evolution of galaxies
• Strong Nebular Line Ratios in the Spectra of z~2-3 Star-forming Galaxies: First Results from KBSS-MOSFIRE
• Reevaluating Old Stellar Populations
• Merging binary black holes formed through chemically homogeneous evolution in short-period stellar binaries
• Understanding Galaxy Evolution through Emission Lines
• Theoretical Evolution of Optical Strong Lines across Cosmic Time
• Evidence of patchy hydrogen reionization from an extreme Ly$\alpha$ trough below redshift six
• Nebular Continuum and Line Emission in Stellar Population Synthesis Models
• Reconciling the Stellar and Nebular Spectra of High Redshift Galaxies
• The chemically homogeneous evolutionary channel for binary black hole mergers: rates and properties of gravitational-wave events detectable by advanced LIGO
• Stellar Population Effects on the Inferred Photon Density at Reionization
• Lyman-alpha and CIII] Emission in z=7-9 Galaxies: Accelerated Reionization Around Luminous Star Forming Systems?
• Modelling the nebular emission from primeval to present-day star-forming galaxies
• New Measurements of the Ionizing Ultraviolet Background over 2 < z < 5 and Implications for Hydrogen Reionization
• The MOSDEF Survey: Electron Density and Ionization Parameter at $z\sim 2.3$
• The death of massive stars - II. Observational constraints on the progenitors of type Ibc supernovae
• ALMA Spectroscopic Survey in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field: The Infrared Excess of UV-selected z=2-10 galaxies as a function of UV-continuum Slope and Stellar Mass
• BPASS predictions for Binary Black-Hole Mergers
• Strongly star forming galaxies in the local Universe with nebular He II 4686 emission
• The HDUV Survey: A Revised Assessment of the Relationship between UV Slope and Dust Attenuation for High-Redshift Galaxies
• The Lyman-Continuum Photon Production Efficiency xi_{ion} of z~4-5 Galaxies from IRAC-based Halpha Measurements: Implications for the Escape Fraction and Cosmic Reionization
• Spectral models for binary products: Unifying Subdwarfs and Wolf-Rayet stars as a sequence of stripped-envelope stars
• The Lyman Continuum Escape Survey: Ionizing Radiation from [O III]-Strong Sources at a Redshift of 3.1
• Ultraviolet spectra of extreme nearby star-forming regions --- approaching a local reference sample for JWST
• The MOSDEF Survey: Direct-Method Metallicities and ISM Conditions at $z\sim 1.5-3.5$
• Ionizing spectra of stars that lose their envelope through interaction with a binary companion: role of metallicity
• Low-metallicity massive single stars with rotation. Evolutionary models applicable to I Zwicky 18
• Binary Stars Can Provide the "Missing Photons" Needed for Reionization
• On the dust temperatures of high redshift galaxies
• Reionization and high-redshift galaxies: the view from quasar absorption lines
• Large Fluctuations in the High-Redshift Metagalactic Ionizing Background
• Metal-enriched galactic outflows shape the mass-metallicity relationship
• Emission-line diagnostics of nearby HII regions including interacting binary populations
• No missing photons for reionization: moderate ionizing photon escape fractions from the FIRE-2 simulations
• Keck Spectroscopy of Faint 3 < z < 7 Lyman Break Galaxies: III. The Mean Ultraviolet Spectrum at z=4
• The Connection Between Reddening, Gas Covering Fraction, and the Escape of Ionizing Radiation at High Redshift
• The ALPINE-ALMA [CII] survey: Dust attenuation properties and obscured star formation at z~4.4-5.8
• The VANDELS survey: the stellar metallicities of star-forming galaxies at 2.5 < z < 5.0
• Binary Population Synthesis
• Compact object mergers: exploring uncertainties from stellar and binary evolution with SEVN
• New Insights into the Evolution of Massive Stars and Their Effects on Our Understanding of Early Galaxies
• Wolf-Rayet stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud: II. Analysis of the binaries
• The impact of stars stripped in binaries on the integrated spectra of stellar populations
• Inferred Hα Flux as a Star-Formation Rate Indicator at z ~ 4-5: Implications for Dust Properties, Burstiness, and the z = 4-8 Star-Formation-Rate Functions
• The nature of luminous Lyman-alpha emitters at z~2-3: maximal dust-poor starbursts and highly ionising AGN
• A Close Relationship between Lyman Alpha and Mg II in Green Pea Galaxies
• HeII emitters in the VIMOS VLT Deep Survey: PopIII star formation or peculiar stellar populations in galaxies at 2<z<4.6?
• Starburst-AGN mixing: II. Optically-selected active galaxies
• H-alpha emission in local galaxies: star formation, time variability and the diffuse ionized gas
• Extremely metal-poor galaxies with HST/COS: laboratories for models of low-metallicity massive stars and high-redshift galaxies
• Evolution of accretor stars in massive binaries: broader implications from modeling ζ Ophiuchi
• High-mass X-ray binaries in nearby metal-poor galaxies: on the contribution to nebular HeII emission
• A Comprehensive Comparative Test of Seven Widely-Used Spectral Synthesis Models Against Multi-Band Photometry of Young Massive Star Clusters
• No evidence for Population III stars or a Direct Collapse Black Hole in the z = 6.6 Lyman-$\alpha$ emitter 'CR7'
• The Lyman-continuum photon production efficiency in the high-redshift Universe
• Initial Mass Function Variations Cannot Explain the Ionizing Spectrum of Low Metallicity Starbursts
• The Epoch of IGM heating by early sources of X-rays
• The contribution from stars stripped in binaries to cosmic reionization of hydrogen and helium
• Exploring HeII$\lambda$1640 emission line properties at $z\sim 2-4$
• Interpreting high [O III]/Hbeta ratios with maturing starbursts
• Stellar and nebular diagnostics in the UV for star-forming galaxies
• Rest-UV Absorption Lines as Metallicity Estimator: the Metal Content of Star-Forming Galaxies at z~5
• Mean Halpha+[NII]+[SII] EW Inferred for Star-Forming Galaxies at z=5.1-5.4 Using High-Quality Spitzer/IRAC Photometry
• Investigating the diversity of supernovae type Iax: A MUSE and NOT spectroscopic study of their environments
• Ultraviolet spectra of extreme nearby star-forming regions: evidence for an overabundance of very massive stars
• Semi-analytic forecasts for JWST -- III. Intrinsic production efficiency of Lyman-continuum radiation
• GRB 080517: A local, low luminosity GRB in a dusty galaxy at z=0.09
• On the far-infrared metallicity diagnostics: applications to high-redshift galaxies
• Large scale simulations of H and He reionization and heating driven by stars and more energetic sources
• Nebular emission from young stellar populations including binary stars
• Clues on the presence and segregation of very massive stars in the Sunburst Lyman-continuum cluster at z=2.37
• The Luminosity Function of Red Supergiants in M31
• Looking for Population III stars with He II line intensity mapping
• The IRX-$\beta$ relation of high-redshift galaxies
• A Rare Encounter with Very Massive Stars in NGC 3125-A1
• An analytic model for OIII fine structure emission from high redshift galaxies
• Comparison of Theoretical Starburst Photoionisation Models for Optical Diagnostics
• Direct Constraints on the Extremely Metal-Poor Massive Stars Underlying Nebular C IV Emission from Ultra-Deep HST/COS Ultraviolet Spectroscopy
• Low-metallicity massive single stars with rotation. II. Predicting spectra and spectral classes of chemically-homogeneously evolving stars
• The distance, supernova rate and supernova progenitors of NGC 6946
• Evidence for Very Massive Stars in extremely UV-bright star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 2.2-3.6$
• Inferring the presence of very massive stars in local star-forming regions
• ZFIRE: Using H$\alpha$ equivalent widths to investigate the in situ initial mass function at z~2
• The physical nature of the 8 o'clock arc based on near-IR IFU spectroscopy with SINFONI
• DEVILS: Cosmic evolution of SED-derived metallicities and their connection to star-formation histories
• Core-Collapse Supernova Rate Synthesis Within 11 Mpc
• Chandra reveals a luminous Compton-thick QSO powering a $Ly\alpha$ blob in a $z=4$ starbursting protocluster
• Evaluating chemically homogeneous evolution in stellar binaries: Electromagnetic implications -- Ionizing photons, SLSN-I, GRB, Ic-BL
• Revisiting binary stars in population synthesis models
• Exploring the impact of IMF and binary parameter stochasticity with a binary population synthesis code
• Delayed Photons from Binary Evolution Help Reionize the Universe
• Exploring the Cosmic Evolution of Habitability with Galaxy Merger Trees
• Clues on the history of early-type galaxies from SDSS spectra and GALEX photometry
• Investigating X-ray sources during the epoch of reionization with the 21 cm signal
• The 50-100pc scale parent stellar populations of type II supernovae and limitations of single star evolution models
• Physical Properties of Local Star-Forming Analogues to z~5 Lyman Break Galaxies
• Hα to FUV ratios in resolved star forming region populations of nearby spiral galaxies
• Binary Fraction Indicators in Resolved Stellar Populations and Supernova Type Ratios
• Constraining Very High Mass Population III Stars through He II Emission in Galaxy BDF-521 at z = 7.01
• On the Simultaneous Modelling of Dust and Stellar Populations for Interpretation of Galaxy Properties
• UNCOVERing the High-redshift AGN Population among Extreme UV Line Emitters
• A Study of Wolf-Rayet stars Formed via Chemically Homogeneous Evolution
• Quantifying correlations between galaxy emission lines and stellar continua
• Signatures of Rapidly Rotating Stars with Chemically Homogeneous Evolution in the First Galaxies
• Linking UV spectral properties of MUSE Ly-alpha emitters at z>3 to Lyman continuum escape
• The Star-Forming Interstellar Medium of Lyman Break Galaxy Analogs
• A CRASH simulation of the contribution of binary stars to the epoch of reionization
• A puzzling non-detection of [O III] and [C II] from a $z\approx 7.7$ galaxy observed with ALMA
• On recent SFR calibrations and the constant SFR approximation
• Applications of Stellar Population Synthesis in the Distant Universe
• The effect of emission lines on the performance of photometric redshift estimation algorithms
• Effects of chemically homogeneous evolution of the first stars on the 21-cm signal and reionization
• Flashlights: Prospects for constraining the Initial Mass Function around cosmic noon with caustic-crossing events
• Fluorescent C II* 1335A emission spectroscopically resolved in a galaxy at z = 5.754
• Low-metallicity massive single stars with rotation. III. Source of ionization and C-IV emission in I Zw 18
• What can distant galaxies teach us about massive stars?
• pop-cosmos: Insights from generative modeling of a deep, infrared-selected galaxy population
• HeII emitters at cosmic noon and beyond. Characterising the HeII λ1640 emission with MUSE and JWST/NIRSpec
• Interpreting Galaxy Properties with Improved Modelling
• The Tarantula Nebula as a template for extragalactic star forming regions from VLT/MUSE and HST/STIS