No correlation of the Lyman continuum escape fraction with spectral hardness

Abstract

The properties that govern the production and escape of hydrogen ionizing photons (Lyman continuum, LyC; with energies >13.6 eV) in star-forming galaxies are still poorly understood, but they are key to identifying and characterizing the sources that reionized the Universe. Here we empirically explore the relationship between the hardness of ionizing radiation and the LyC leakage in a large sample of low-$z$ star-forming galaxies from the recent Hubble Space Telescope Low-$z$ Lyman Continuum Survey. Using Sloan Digital Sky Survey stacks and deep XShooter observations, we investigate the hardness of the ionizing spectra ($Q_{\mathrm{H}{\mathrm{e}}^{+}}/Q_{\mathrm{H}}$) between 54.4 eV (He${}^{+}$) and 13.6 eV (H) from the optical recombination lines HeII 4686A and H$\beta$ 4861A for galaxies with LyC escape fractions spanning a wide range, $f_{\mathrm{esc}}(\mathrm{LyC})\simeq 0-90\%$. We find that the observed intensity of HeII/H$\beta$ is primarily driven by variations in the metallicity, but is not correlated with LyC leakage. Both very strong ($<f_{\mathrm{esc}}(\mathrm{LyC})>\simeq 0.5$) and nonleakers ($<f_{\mathrm{esc}}(\mathrm{LyC})>\simeq 0$) present similar observed intensities of HeII/H$\beta$ at comparable metallicity, between $\simeq 0.01$ and $\simeq 0.02$ for $12+\log (O/H)>8.0$ and $<8.0$, respectively. Our results demonstrate that $Q_{\mathrm{H}{\mathrm{e}}^{+}}/Q_{\mathrm{H}}$ does not correlate with $f_{\mathrm{esc}}(\mathrm{LyC})$, which implies that strong LyC emitters do not show harder ionizing spectra than nonleakers at similar metallicity.

6 pages, 2 figures, 1 tables. Accepted for publication in A&A Letters. v2: updated to match published version, including new title

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