The Sunburst Arc: Direct Lyman α escape observed in the brightest known lensed galaxy
Name
aa32173-17.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
733.55 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
c190387a16841587e4d230d656f0a22c
Author(s)
Rivera-Thorsen, TE
Dahle, H
Gronke, M
Bayliss, M
Rigby, JR
Simcoe, R
Bordoloi, R
Turner, M
Furesz, G
Date Issued
2017
Journal
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Publisher
EDP Sciences
Version
Final published version
Abstract
© ESO, 2017. We present rest-frame ultraviolet and optical spectroscopy of the brightest lensed galaxy yet discovered, at redshift z = 2.4. The source reveals a characteristic triple-peaked Lyman α profile that has been predicted in various theoretical works, but to our knowledge has not been unambiguously observed previously. The feature is well fit by a superposition of two components: A double-peak profile emerging from substantial radiative transfer, and a narrow, central component resulting from directly escaping Lyman α photons, but it is poorly fit by either component alone. We demonstrate that the feature is unlikely to contain contamination from nearby sources, and that the central peak is unaffected by radiative transfer effects except for very slight absorption. The feature is detected at signal-To-noise ratios exceeding 80 per pixel at line center, and bears strong resemblance to synthetic profiles predicted by numerical models.
MIT Department
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201732173
