Spectral Energy Distribution Fitting of HETDEX Pilot Survey Lyman-alpha Emitters in COSMOS and GOODS-N

Abstract

We use broadband photometry extending from the rest-frame UV to the near-IR to fit the individual spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of 63 bright (L(Ly-alpha) > 10^43 ergs/s) Ly-alpha emitting galaxies (LAEs) in the redshift range 1.9 < z < 3.6. We find that these LAEs are quite heterogeneous, with stellar masses that span over three orders of magnitude, from 7.5 < log M < 10.5. Moreover, although most LAEs have small amounts of extinction, some high-mass objects have stellar reddenings as large as E(B-V) ~0.4. Interestingly, in dusty objects the optical depths for Ly-alpha and the UV continuum are always similar, indicating that Ly-alpha photons are not undergoing many scatters before escaping their galaxy. In contrast, the ratio of optical depths in low-reddening systems can vary widely, illustrating the diverse nature of the systems. Finally, we show that in the star formation rate (SFR)-log mass diagram, our LAEs fall above the "main-sequence" defined by z ~ 3 continuum selected star-forming galaxies. In this respect, they are similar to sub-mm-selected galaxies, although most LAEs have much lower mass.

Accepted to the ApJ

References in corpus (6)

• The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) -- Overview
• The Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey (SXDS). IV. Evolution of Lya Emitters from z=3.1 to 5.7 in the 1 deg^2 Field: Luminosity Functions and AGN
• Ly-alpha Emission-Line Galaxies at z = 3.1 in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South
• 3D Lyman-alpha radiation transfer. III. Constraints on gas and stellar properties of z~3 Lyman break galaxies (LBG) and implications for high-z LBGs and Lyman-alpha emitters(LAEs)
• Effects of Dust Geometry in Lyman Alpha Galaxies at z = 4.4
• Lyman alpha emitting galaxies at 0.2 < z < 0.35 from GALEX spectroscopy

Cited by in corpus (23)

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• The Effects of Stellar Population and Gas Covering Fraction on the Emergent Lyman Alpha Emission of High-Redshift Galaxies
• A Comprehensive Study of Ly$\alpha$ Emission in the High-redshift Galaxy Population
• The Lyman alpha reference sample: IV. Morphology at low and high redshift
• The Stellar Mass, Star Formation Rate and Dark Matter Halo Properties of LAEs at $z\sim 2$
• HST Emission Line Galaxies at z ~ 2: The Mystery of Neon
• HST Emission Line Galaxies at z ~ 2: The Ly-alpha Escape Fraction
• The VIMOS Ultra Deep Survey: The role of HI kinematics and HI column density on the escape of Lyalpha photons in star-forming galaxies at 2<z<4
• First Infrared-based implications for the dust attenuation and star formation of typical Ly$\alpha$ emitters
• Lyman-Alpha Escape from Low-Mass, Compact, High-Redshift Galaxies
• Similarities and uniqueness of Ly$\alpha$ emitters among star-forming galaxies at z=2.5
• Interrelation of the environment of Ly$\alpha$ emitters and massive galaxies at $2<z<4.5$
• Scrutiny of a very young, metal-poor star-forming Lyα-emitter at z ~ 3.7
• Revealing the Nature of a Lyman-$\alpha$ Halo in a Strongly Lensed Interacting System at $z=2.92$
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• Observations of Ly$\alpha$ Emitters at High Redshift
• Identifying Lyα emitter candidates with Random Forest: learning from galaxies in CANDELS survey
• Photometric IGM tomography with Subaru/HSC: the large-scale structure of Ly$\alpha$ emitters and IGM transmission in the COSMOS field at $z\sim 5$
• Can luminous Lyman alpha emitters at $z$ $\simeq$ 5.7 and $z$ $\simeq$ 6.6 suppress star formation?
• A gradient boosting and broadband approach to finding Lyman-α emitting galaxies beyond narrowband surveys