分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Around 400 million years after the big bang, ultraviolet emission (Lyman Continuum, LyC) from star-forming galaxies drove the reionization of the Universe. How this radiation escapes the cold neutral gas (HI) of galaxies with sufficiently little absorption to reionize the intergalactic medium is poorly understood. HI has never been mapped in confirmed LyC-emitters, leaving major uncertainties on how LyC photons escape galaxies and ionize the intergalactic medium. We imaged the 21cm HI emission of nearby reionization-era analog galaxy Haro 11 to identify how ionizing radiation escapes the neutral interstellar medium. We find that merger-driven interactions have tidally displaced up to 82% of the neutral gas from the ultraviolet emission production sites in the galaxy, allowing the escape of ionizing radiation to the intergalactic medium. Increased galaxy interactions in the early Universe predicted by cosmological models could contribute significantly to the reionization of the Universe.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Recent observations of GN-z11 with JWST have revealed a Ly$\alpha$ emission line with an equivalent width of 18$\pm 2$ angstroms. At z=10.6, this galaxy is expected to lie in the heart of reionization. We use a series of inhomogeneous reionization simulations to derive the distribution of the Ly$\alpha$ EW after traveling through the neutral intergalactic medium with varying average neutral gas fraction, $x_{HI}$. We use these distribution to place an upper limit of $x_{HI} 8. We find that models in which faint galaxies have higher escape fraction compared to bright galaxies are favored by the new data.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: The COS Legacy Archive Spectroscopic SurveY (CLASSY) HST/COS treasury program provides the first high-resolution spectral catalogue of 45 local high-z analogues in the UV (1200-2000{\AA}) to investigate their stellar and gas properties. We present a toolkit of UV interstellar medium (ISM) diagnostics, analyzing the main emission lines of CLASSY spectra (i.e., NIV]{\lambda}{\lambda}1483,87, CIV{\lambda}{\lambda}1548,51, HeII{\lambda}1640, OIII]{\lambda}{\lambda}1661,6, SiIII]{\lambda}{\lambda}1883,92, CIII]{\lambda}{\lambda}1907,9). Specifically, we focus our investigation on providing accurate diagnostics for reddening, electron density and temperature, gas-phase metallicity and ionization parameter, taking into account the different ionization zones of the ISM. We calibrate our UV toolkit using well-known optical diagnostics, analyzing archival optical spectra for all the CLASSY targets. We find that UV density diagnostics estimate ne values that are ~1-2 dex higher (e.g., ne(CIII]{\lambda}{\lambda}1907,9)~10^4cm^{-3}) than those inferred from their optical counterparts (e.g., ne([SII]{\lambda}{\lambda}6717,31)~10^2cm^{-3}). Te derived from the hybrid ratio OIII]{\lambda}1666/[OIII]{\lambda}5007 proves to be a reliable Te diagnostic, with differences in 12+log(O/H) within ~+/-0.3dex. We also investigate the relation between the stellar and gas E(B-V), finding consistent values at high specific star formation rates, while at low sSFR we confirm an excess of dust attenuation in the gas. Finally, we investigate UV line ratios and equivalent widths to provide correlations with 12+log(O/H) and log(U), but note there are degeneracies between the two. With this suite of UV-based diagnostics, we illustrate the pivotal role CLASSY plays in understanding the chemical and physical properties of high-z systems that JWST can observe in the rest-frame UV.