The Spitzer Lyman Alpha Survey

Details The Spitzer Lyman Alpha Survey The Spitzer Lyman Alpha Survey

Apr 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009sptz.prop60176r&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #60176

Physics

Scientific paper

Determining the star formation history of high-redshift galaxies is vital for understanding galaxy formation and reionization. These galaxies are typically selected using their rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) fluxes, thus their old stellar populations can be missed. Spitzer Imaging at 3.6 microns is essential to measure the rest-frame optical fluxes of high redshift galaxies and therefore estimate the total stellar mass. Lyman-alpha galaxies form fully half of the known galaxies at zD3-6. The strength of the Lyman-alpha line, at first glance, indicates a young (~10 million years old) and dust-free population. This picture of Lyman-alpha galaxies as a class of less massive and young objects is simultaneously being confirmed and challenged thanks to Spitzer data. While most of the Lyman-alpha galaxies are young and low-mass, a subset of them are more massive and/or dusty. That there may be two types of Lyman-alpha emitters, is based on the only those few studies that analyze individual galaxies, and not co-addition of a sample of non-detections. In order to robustly investigate the statistical fraction of older and younger Lyman-alpha galaxies at any given redshift and to find out the redshift evolution of this fraction, we simultaneously need a large sample at many redshifts, and we need deep imaging so we can study individual objects. We propose a systematic IRAC 3.6 imaging survey of a spectroscopically confirmed sample of about 100 Lyman-alpha galaxies between redshifts 3.1 8; (2) The dust extinction in the UV, and therefore a correction to their present star-formation rates; (3) The fraction of galaxies with old stellar populations as a function of redshift.

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