Candidate z ~ 2.5 Lyman Continuum Sources in the GOODS Fields

Abstract

We use the wealth of deep archival optical spectroscopy on the GOODS-South field from Keck, the VLT, and other facilities to select candidate high-redshift Lyman continuum (LyC) leakers in the Hubble Deep UV Legacy Survey (HDUV) dataset. We select sources at $2.35<z<3.05$, where the HST/WFC3 F275W filter probes only the redshifted LyC. We find five moderately F275W-bright sources (four detected at $\gtrsim 3\sigma$ significance) in this redshift range. However, two of these show evidence in their optical spectra for contamination by foreground galaxies along the line-of-sight. We then perform an F275W error-weighted sum of the fluxes of all 129 galaxies at $2.35<z<3.05$ in both the GOODS-N and GOODS-S HDUV areas to estimate the total ionizing flux. The result is dominated by just five candidate F275W-bright LyC sources. Lastly, we examine the contributions to the metagalactic ionizing background, finding that, at the sensitivity of the HDUV F275W data and allowing for the effects of LyC transmission in the intergalactic medium (IGM), star-forming galaxies can match the UV flux required to maintain an ionized IGM at $z\sim 2.5$.

13 pages, 7 figures; accepted to ApJ

References in corpus (23)

• Cosmic Reionization and Early Star-Forming Galaxies: A Joint Analysis of New Constraints from Planck and Hubble Space Telescope
• The Chandra Deep Field-South Survey: 7 Ms Source Catalogs
• The observed ionization rate of the intergalactic medium and the ionizing emissivity at z >5: Evidence for a photon starved and extended epoch of reionization
• The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey: I. Survey description, data reduction and source detection
• CMasher: Scientific colormaps for making accessible, informative and 'cmashing' plots
• The Direct Detection of Lyman-Continuum Emission from Star-forming Galaxies at z~3
• The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey. VLT/VIMOS Spectroscopy in the GOODS-South Field
• Evolution of the Intergalactic Opacity: Implications for the Ionizing Background, Cosmic Star Formation, and Quasar Activity
• The FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE): ultraviolet to far-infrared catalogs, medium-bandwidth photometric redshifts with improved accuracy, stellar masses, and confirmation of quiescent galaxies to z~3.5
• Lyman-alpha spectral properties of five newly discovered Lyman continuum emitters
• ALMA Reveals the Molecular Medium Fueling the Nearest Nuclear Starburst
• Feedback-regulated star formation and escape of LyC photons from mini-haloes during reionisation
• UVUDF: Ultraviolet Through Near-infrared Catalog and Photometric Redshifts of Galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field
• The MUSE Hubble Ultra Deep Field Survey: II. Spectroscopic redshifts and comparisons to color selections of high-redshift galaxies
• Q1549-C25: A Clean Source of Lyman-Continuum Emission at $z=3.15$
• The Luminosity Function of high-redshift QSOs - A combined analysis of GOODS and SDSS
• The Lyman Continuum escape fraction of emission line-selected $z\sim 2.5$ galaxies is less than 15%
• A WFC3 Grism Emission Line Redshift Catalog in the GOODS-South Field
• Quantifying Distributions of Lyman Continuum Escape Fraction
• AstroSat detection of Lyman continuum emission from a z=1.42 galaxy
• On the AGN nature of two UV bright sources at z_spec~5.5 in the CANDELS fields: an update of the AGN space density at M1450~-22.5
• The Lyman Continuum Escape Fraction of Galaxies and AGN in the GOODS Fields
• A Submillimeter Perspective on the GOODS Fields (SUPER GOODS). IV. The Submillimeter Properties of X-ray Sources in the CDF-S

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Detections of [C II] 158 $\mu$m and [O III] 88 $\mu$m in a Local Lyman Continuum Emitter, Mrk 54, and its Implications to High-redshift ALMA Studies