The MUSE-Wide survey: A measurement of the Ly$\hat{I}\pm$ emitting fraction among $z>3$ galaxies

Abstract

We present a measurement of the fraction of Lyman $\hat{I}\pm$ (Ly$\hat{I}\pm$) emitters ($X_{\mathrm{Ly}\hat{\mathrm{I}}\pm }$) amongst HST continuum-selected galaxies at $3<z<6$ with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on the VLT. Making use of the first 24 MUSE-Wide pointings in GOODS-South, each having an integration time of 1 hour, we detect 100 Ly$\hat{I}\pm$ emitters and find $X_{\mathrm{Ly}\hat{\mathrm{I}}\pm }\gtrsim 0.5$ for most of the redshift range covered, with 29 per cent of the Ly$\hat{I}\pm$ sample exhibiting rest equivalent widths (rest-EWs) $\le$ 15Ã . Adopting a range of rest-EW cuts (0 - 75Ã ), we find no evidence of a dependence of $X_{\mathrm{Ly}\hat{\mathrm{I}}\pm }$ on either redshift or UV luminosity.

10 pages, 5 figures (MNRAS, updated as per version in press)