The Luminosity Function of Lyα Emitters at z=3.1

Details The Luminosity Function of Lyα Emitters at z=3.1 The Luminosity Function of Lyα Emitters at z=3.1

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006aas...20917105c&link_type=abstract

2007 AAS/AAPT Joint Meeting, American Astronomical Society Meeting 209, #171.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society,

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Scientific paper

We describe the results of an extremely deep, wide-field (0.28 deg2) survey for z=3.1 Lyα emitting galaxies (LAEs) in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South. Using a complete sample of 162 objects with observed equivalent widths greater than 80 Å and monochromatic line fluxes brighter than 1.5 x 10-17 ergs-cm-2-s-1, we show that a) the Lyα emission-line luminosity function has a faint-end slope of α = -1.7 ± 0.3, b) the bright-end break in this function is near log L*/L¤ 9.3, but is only detected at the 2 σ level, and c) the space density of LAEs above our detection threshold is 1.47 ± 0.13 x 10-3 h0.7-3 galaxies Mpc-3. The space density of LAEs implies that Lyα emitters at z = 3.1 are more numerous and/or more luminous than their z = 5.7 counterparts. Moreover, the equivalent width distribution of the galaxies demonstrates that fewer than 10% have the extremely high (> 240 Å) rest-frame values suggestive of Pop III star formation. By translating our fluxes into star-formation rates, we show that typical LAEs form stars at rates between 1 and 10 h0.7-2 M¤ yr-1 and that the integral star-formation rate of these objects is 1.2 x 10-2 h0.7 M¤ yr-1 Mpc-3. We show that these rates are several times less than those implied from the galaxies’ UV continua, and attribute this discrepancy to the presence of a small amount of dust in the systems. These data, along with the scatter in the galaxies’ rest-frame m1060 m1570 colors, suggest that Lyα emitters at z = 3.1 are not primordial Pop III objects.
This work was supported by NSF grants 00-71238 and 01-37927 and HST AR10324.01A. JF and EG acknowledge the support of NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowships.

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