An extreme blue nugget, UV-bright starburst at z=3.613 with ninety per cent of Lyman continuum photon escape

Abstract

We present the discovery and analysis of J1316+2614 at z=3.6130, a UV-bright star-forming galaxy ($M_{\mathrm{UV}}\simeq -24.7$) with large escape of Lyman continuum (LyC) radiation. J1316+2614 is a young ($\simeq 10$ Myr) star-forming galaxy with $SFR\simeq 500M_{\odot }$ yr${}^{-1}$ and a starburst mass of log($M_{\star }/M_{\odot })\simeq 9.7$. It shows a very steep UV continuum, ${\beta }_{\mathrm{UV}}\simeq -2.59\pm 0.05$, consistent with residual dust obscuration, $E(B-V)\simeq 0$. LyC emission is detected with high significance ($\simeq 17\sigma$) down to $830$Å, for which a very high relative (absolute) LyC escape fraction $f_{\mathrm{esc}}(\mathrm{LyC})\simeq 0.92$ ($\simeq 0.87$) is inferred. The contribution of a foreground or AGN contamination to the LyC signal is discussed but is unlikely. J1316$+$2614 is the most powerful ionizing source known among the star-forming galaxy population, both in terms of production ($Q_{\mathrm{H}}\approx 10^{56}$ s${}^{-1}$) and escape of ionizing photons ($f_{\mathrm{esc}}(\mathrm{LyC})\approx 0.9$). Nebular emission in Ly$\alpha$, H$\beta$, and other rest-frame optical lines are detected, but these are weak ($E{W}_0[\mathrm{H}\beta ]\simeq 35$Å), with their strengths reduced roughly by $\simeq 90\%$. J1316+2614 is the first case known where the effect of large escape of ionizing photons on the strength of nebular lines and continuum emission is clearly observed. Gas inflows are detected in J1316+2614 from the blue-dominated peak Ly$\alpha$ emission (with a blue-to-red peak line ratio $I_{\mathrm{blue}}/I_{\mathrm{red}}\simeq 3.7$) and redshifted ISM absorption ($\simeq 100$ km s${}^{-1}$). Our results suggest that J1316+2614 is undergoing a gas compaction event, possibly representing a short-lived phase in the evolution of massive and compact galaxies, where strong gas inflows have triggered an extreme star formation episode and nearly $100\%$ LyC photons are escaping.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in MNRAS. 18 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables

References in corpus (129)

• Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003
• Measuring Reddening with SDSS Stellar Spectra and Recalibrating SFD
• The Dust Content and Opacity of Actively Star-Forming Galaxies
• Starburst99: Synthesis Models for Galaxies with Active Star Formation
• SDSS-III: Massive Spectroscopic Surveys of the Distant Universe, the Milky Way Galaxy, and Extra-Solar Planetary Systems
• Rest-Frame Ultraviolet Spectra of z~3 Lyman Break Galaxies
• CIGALE: a python Code Investigating GALaxy Emission
• An 800-million-solar-mass black hole in a significantly neutral Universe at redshift 7.5
• Cosmic Reionization and Early Star-Forming Galaxies: A Joint Analysis of New Constraints from Planck and Hubble Space Telescope
• The Galactic disk mass function: reconciliation of the HST and nearby determinations
• The Fourteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey and from the second phase of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment
• Compaction and Quenching of High-z Galaxies in Cosmological Simulations: Blue and Red Nuggets
• A Steep Faint-End Slope of the UV Luminosity Function at z~2-3: Implications for the Global Stellar Mass Density and Star Formation in Low Mass Halos
• Star Formation and Dust Attenuation Properties in Galaxies from a Statistical UV-to-FIR Analysis
• A Remarkably Luminous Galaxy at z=11.1 Measured with Hubble Space Telescope Grism Spectroscopy
• Wet Disc Contraction to Galactic Blue Nuggets and Quenching to Red Nuggets
• Nebular Emission from Star-Forming Galaxies
• An updated analytic model for the attenuation by the intergalactic medium
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog: Fourteenth Data Release
• Reconciling the Stellar and Nebular Spectra of High Redshift Galaxies
• The Confinement of Star-Forming Galaxies into a Main Sequence through Episodes of Gas Compaction, Depletion, and Replenishment
• Stellar Population Effects on the Inferred Photon Density at Reionization
• The Universe is Reionizing at z~7: Bayesian Inference of the IGM Neutral Fraction Using Ly$\alpha$ Emission from Galaxies
• Ionization State of Inter-Stellar Medium in Galaxies: Evolution, SFR-M_star-Z Dependence, and Ionizing Photon Escape
• Detection of high Lyman continuum leakage from four low-redshift compact star-forming galaxies
• Conditions for Reionizing the Universe with A Low Galaxy Ionizing Photon Escape Fraction
• Low-redshift Lyman continuum leaking galaxies with high [OIII]/[OII] ratios
• The Keck Lyman Continuum Spectroscopic Survey (KLCS): The Emergent Ionizing Spectrum of Galaxies at $z\sim 3$
• The CatWISE2020 Catalog
• Demographics and Physical Properties of Gas Out/Inflows at 0.4 < z < 1.4
• Lyman Alpha Radiation From Collapsing Protogalaxies I: Characteristics of the Emergent Spectrum
• Using Lyman-alpha to detect galaxies that leak Lyman continuum
• Evolution of Density Profiles in High-z Galaxies: Compaction and Quenching Inside-Out
• Lyman continuum leaking from the compact star-forming dwarf galaxy J0925+1403
• The impact of nebular emission on the ages of z~6 galaxies
• The first ultraviolet quasar stacked spectrum at z=2.4 from WFC3
• A universal structural and star-forming relation since $z\sim 3$: connecting compact star-forming and quiescent galaxies
• A massive, quiescent galaxy at redshift of z=3.717
• The Origin and Optical Depth of Ionizing Radiation in the "Green Pea" Galaxies
• J1154+2443: a low-redshift compact star-forming galaxy with a 46 per cent leakage of Lyman continuum photons
• "Big Three Dragons": a z = 7.15 Lyman BreakGalaxy Detected in [OIII] 88 $\mu$m, [CII] 158 $\mu$m, and Dust Continuum with ALMA
• The R136 star cluster dissected with Hubble Space Telescope/STIS. I. Far-ultraviolet spectroscopic census and the origin of HeII 1640 in young star clusters
• Lyman-alpha spectral properties of five newly discovered Lyman continuum emitters
• A lack of evolution in the very bright-end of the galaxy luminosity function from z = 8-10
• Reionization Era Bright Emission Line Survey: Selection and Characterization of Luminous Interstellar Medium Reservoirs in the z>6.5 Universe
• The Star Formation Main Sequence in the Hubble Space Telescope Frontier Fields
• 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
• Quiescent galaxies 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang and their progenitors
• A Local Clue to the Reionization of the Universe
• Hubble imaging of the ionizing radiation from a star-forming galaxy at z=3.2 with fesc>50%
• An extreme [OIII] emitter at $z=3.2$: a low metallicity Lyman continuum source
• The spectral evolution of the first galaxies. II. Spectral signatures of Lyman continuum leakage from galaxies in the reionization epoch
• The Lyman Continuum Escape Survey: Ionizing Radiation from [O III]-Strong Sources at a Redshift of 3.1
• Direct Lyman continuum and Lyman-alpha escape observed at redshift 4
• The Low-Redshift Lyman Continuum Survey I: New, Diverse Local Lyman-Continuum Emitters
• The Ly-alpha Properties of Faint Galaxies at z2-3 with Systemic Redshifts and Velocity Dispersions from Keck-MOSFIRE
• Semi-analytic forecasts for JWST - I. UV luminosity functions at z = 4 - 10
• The Direct Detection of Cool, Metal-Enriched Gas Accretion onto Galaxies at z ~ 0.5
• The Spectroscopic Properties of Lyα-Emitters at z $\approx$ 2.7: Escaping Gas and Photons from Faint Galaxies
• Q1549-C25: A Clean Source of Lyman-Continuum Emission at $z=3.15$
• The Low-Redshift Lyman Continuum Survey II: New Insights into LyC Diagnostics
• The [OIII]$+$H$\beta$ Equivalent Width Distribution at z$\simeq$7: Implications for the Contribution of Galaxies to Reionization
• What is the physical origin of strong Lya emission? II. Gas Kinematics and Distribution of Lya Emitters
• An X-shooter composite of bright 1 < z < 2 quasars from UV to infrared
• On The Detection Of Ionizing Radiation Arising From Star-Forming Galaxies At Redshift z ~ 3-4 : Looking For Analogs Of "Stellar Reionizers"
• Constraining the metallicities, ages, star formation histories, and ionizing continua of extragalactic massive star populations
• Gravitational lensing reveals ionizing ultraviolet photons escaping from a distant galaxy
• Effect of galaxy mergers on star formation rates
• The production and escape of Lyman-Continuum radiation from star-forming galaxies at z~2 and their redshift evolution
• Accurately predicting the escape fraction of ionizing photons using restframe ultraviolet absorption lines
• Understanding the escape of LyC and Ly$\alpha$ photons from turbulent clouds
• Ionising the Intergalactic Medium by Star Clusters: The first empirical evidence
• An uncontaminated measurement of the escaping Lyman continuum at $z\sim 3$
• A Search for H-Dropout Lyman Break Galaxies at z~12-16
• The Sunburst Arc: Direct Lyman α escape observed in the brightest known lensed galaxy
• An Extremely Massive Quiescent Galaxy at $z=3.493$: Evidence of Insufficiently Rapid Quenching Mechanisms in Theoretical Models
• Neutral gas properties of Lyman continuum emitting galaxies: column densities and covering fractions from UV absorption lines
• Indirect Evidence for Escaping Ionizing Photons in Local Lyman Break Galaxy Analogs
• The Lyman Continuum escape fraction of faint galaxies at z~3.3 in the CANDELS/GOODS-North, EGS, and COSMOS fields with LBC
• Large turbulent reservoirs of cold molecular gas around high-redshift starburst galaxies
• A new comprehensive set of elemental abundances in DLAs - II. Data analysis and chemical variation studies
• The Low-Redshift Lyman Continuum Survey. Unveiling the ISM properties of low-$z$ Lyman continuum emitters
• The brighter galaxies reionised the Universe
• Deep Learning Identifies High-z Galaxies in a Central Blue Nugget Phase in a Characteristic Mass Range
• A Monte Carlo simulation of the intergalactic absorption and the detectability of the Lyman continuum from distant galaxies
• Diverse properties of Ly-alpha emission in low-redshift compact star-forming galaxies with extremely high [OIII]/[OII] ratios
• Three Lyman-alpha emitting filaments converging to a massive galaxy group at z=2.91: discussing the case for cold gas infall
• The ionizing photon production efficiency of compact z~0.3 Lyman continuum leakers and comparison with high redshift galaxies
• Do galaxies that leak ionizing photons have extreme outflows?
• Lya escape from z~0.03 star-forming galaxies: the dominant role of outflows
• Elevated ionizing photon production efficiency in faint high-equivalent-width Lyman-alpha emitters
• The LyAlpha Line Profiles of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies: Fast Winds and Lyman Continuum Leakage
• The spectral evolution of the first Galaxies. III. Simulated James Webb Space Telescope spectra of reionization-epoch galaxies with Lyman continuum leakage
• The Spectral Slope and Escape Fraction of Bright Quasars at $z\sim 3.8$: the Contribution to the Cosmic UV Background
• Bright galaxies at Hubble's redshift detection frontier: Preliminary results and design from the redshift z~9-10 BoRG pure-parallel HST survey
• The Lyman Continuum escape fraction of emission line-selected $z\sim 2.5$ galaxies is less than 15%
• HST Imaging of the Ionizing Radiation from a Star-forming Galaxy at z = 3.794
• Strong Lyman continuum emitting galaxies show intense CIV 1550 emission
• On the Lack of Correlation Between [OIII]/[OII] and Lyman-Continuum Escape Fraction
• No strong dependence of Lyman continuum leakage on physical properties of star-forming galaxies at $3.1\lesssim \mathbf{z}\lesssim 3.5$
• Probing the Bright End of the Rest-Frame Ultraviolet Luminosity Function at z = 8-10 with Hubble Pure-Parallel Imaging
• New constraints on the average escape fraction of Lyman continuum radiation in z~4 galaxies from the VIMOS Ultra Deep Survey (VUDS)
• Illuminating gas in-/outflows in the MUSE deepest fields: discovery of Ly-alpha nebulae around forming galaxies at z~3.3
• The UV-brightest Lyman continuum emitting star-forming galaxy
• Sizes of Lensed Lower-luminosity z=4-8 Galaxies from the Hubble Frontier Field Program
• Ultraviolet spectra of extreme nearby star-forming regions: evidence for an overabundance of very massive stars
• The VANDELS survey: a measurement of the average Lyman-continuum escape fraction of star-forming galaxies at z=3.5
• The Effective Temperatures of Hot Stars II. The Early-O Types
• Origin of Star-Forming Rings around Massive Centres in Massive Galaxies at $z<4$
• Winds of change: reionization by starburst galaxies
• Lyman continuum leaking AGN in the SSA22 field
• Tracing Lyman-alpha and Lyman Continuum Escape in Galaxies with Mg II Emission
• Lyman "bump" galaxies - I. Spectral energy distribution of galaxies with an escape of nebular Lyman continuum
• Spectroscopic evolution of very massive stars at Z = 1/2.5 Zsun
• Predicting LyC emission of galaxies using their physical and Ly$\alpha$ emission properties
• Lyman Continuum Escape Fraction in Ly$\alpha$ Emitters at $z\simeq 3.1$
• SuperBoRG: Exploration of point sources at $z\sim 8$ in HST parallel fields
• Molecular Gas Inflows and Outflows in Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies at $z\sim 0.2$ and one QSO at $z=6.1$
• The interstellar medium and feedback in the progenitors of the compact passive galaxies at z~2
• IGM Transmission Bias for $z$ $\ge$ 2.9 Lyman Continuum Detected Galaxies
• Rest-frame UV Properties of Luminous Strong Gravitationally Lensed Ly$\alpha$ Emitters from the BELLS GALLERY Survey
• The discovery of the most UV-Lya luminous star-forming galaxy: a young, dust- and metal-poor starburst with QSO-like luminosities
• No correlation of the Lyman continuum escape fraction with spectral hardness
• The Active Galactic Nuclei in the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment Survey (HETDEX) I. Sample selection
• Where Outflows Meet Inflows: Gas Kinematics in SSA22 Lyman-$\alpha$ Blob 2 Decoded by Advanced Radiative Transfer Modelling
• A double-peaked Lyman-$\alpha$ emitter with a strong blue peak multiply imaged by the galaxy cluster RXC J0018.5+1626
• Detection of an ionized gas outflow in the extreme UV-luminous star-forming galaxy BOSS-EUVLG1 at z=2.47
• The Strong Gravitationally Lensed Herschel Galaxy HLock01: Optical Spectroscopy Reveals a Close Galaxy Merger with Evidence of Inflowing Gas
• A Peculiar Type~II QSO Identified via Broad-band Detection of Extreme Nebular Line Emission

Cited by in corpus (29)

• The production of ionizing photons in UV-faint z~3-7 galaxies
• Simulating the diversity of shapes of the Lyman-$\alpha$ line
• Ubiquitous broad-line emission and the relation between ionized gas outflows and Lyman continuum escape in Green Pea galaxies
• Observable and ionizing properties of star-forming galaxies with very massive stars and different IMFs
• Evidence for Very Massive Stars in extremely UV-bright star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 2.2-3.6$
• The Low-Redshift Lyman Continuum Survey: Optically Thin and Thick Mg II Lines as Probes of Lyman Continuum Escape
• Anatomy of an ionized bubble: NIRCam grism spectroscopy of the $z=6.6$ double-peaked Lyman-$\alpha$ emitter COLA1 and its environment
• Insights into the reionization epoch from cosmic-noon-CIV emitters in the VANDELS survey
• Dissecting the Mid-Infrared Heart of M83 with JWST
• Linking Mg II and [O II] spatial distribution to ionizing photon escape in confirmed LyC leakers and non-leakers
• Witnessing an extreme, highly efficient galaxy formation mode with resolved Ly$\alpha$ and LyC emission
• Lyman continuum leaker candidates among highly ionised, low-redshift dwarf galaxies selected from HeII
• Low-redshift Lyman Continuum Survey: Radio continuum properties of low-$z$ Lyman continuum emitters
• Little impact of mergers and galaxy morphology on the production and escape of ionizing photons in the early Universe
• The ionizing photon production efficiency of star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 4-10$
• The leakage of Lyman-continuum photons from a major merger at $z\sim 1$
• The MUSE Extremely Deep Field: Classifying the Spectral Shapes of Lya Emitting Galaxies
• Towards unveiling the Cosmic Reionization: the ionizing photon production efficiency (${\xi }_{ion}$) of Low-mass H$\alpha$ emitters at $z\sim 2.3$
• Inferring the Distribution of the Ionising Photon Escape Fraction
• 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
• Very massive stars at low metallicity: evolution, synthetic spectroscopy, and impact on the integrated light of starbursts
• Ionizing Radiation Escape from Low-Redshift Galaxies and Its Connection to Cosmic Reionization
• Photometric IGM tomography with Subaru/HSC: the large-scale structure of Ly$\alpha$ emitters and IGM transmission in the COSMOS field at $z\sim 5$
• Unveiling dust, molecular gas, and high star formation efficiency in extremely UV bright star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 2.1-3.6$
• Multi-band analysis of strong gravitationally lensed post-blue nugget candidates from the Kilo-Degree Survey
• A resolved Lyman-Alpha profile with doubly peaked emission at z~7
• A Lyman continuum analysis for $\sim 100$ galaxies at $z_{\text{spec}}\sim 3$ in the Abell 2744 Cluster Field
• Unraveling the Lyman Continuum Emission of Ion3: Insights from HST multi-band imaging and X-Shooter spectroscopy
• Euclid: Discovery of 31 new quasars at $6.6<z<7.8$