Andreas L. Faisst — Page 8

arXiv2017

Dust Properties of [CII] Detected z $\sim$ 5.5 Galaxies: New HST/WFC3 Near-IR Observations

We examine the rest-frame ultra-violet (UV) properties of 10 [CII]$\lambda158\,{\rm μm}$$-$detected galaxies at $z\sim5.5$ in COSMOS using new HST/WFC3 near-infrared imaging. Together with pre-existing $158\,{\rm μm}-$continuum and [CII] line measurements by ALMA, we study their dust attenuation properties on the IRX-$β$ diagram, which connects the total dust emission ($\propto$ IRX=log($L_{FIR}/L_{1600}$)) to the line-of-sight dust column ($\proptoβ$). We find systematically bluer UV continuum spectral slopes ($β$) compared to previous low-resolution ground-based measurements, which relieves some of the tension between models of dust attenuation and observations at high redshifts. While most of the galaxies are consistent with local starburst or Small Magellanic cloud like dust properties, we find galaxies with low IRX values and a large range in $β$ that cannot be explained by models of a uniform dust distribution well mixed with stars. A stacking analysis of Keck/DEIMOS optical spectra indicates that these galaxies are metal-poor with young stellar populations which could significantly alter their spatial dust distribution.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Revisiting the Lyman Continuum Escape Crisis: Predictions for z > 6 from Local Galaxies

The intrinsic escape fraction of ionizing Lyman continuum photons ($f_{esc}$) is crucial to understand whether galaxies are capable of reionizing the neutral hydrogen in the early universe at z>6. Unfortunately, it is not possible to access $f_{esc}$ at z>4 with direct observations and the handful of measurements from low redshift galaxies consistently find $f_{esc}$ < 10%, while at least $f_{esc}$ ~ 10% is necessary for galaxies dominate reionization. Here, we present the first empirical prediction of $f_{esc}$ at z>6 by combining the (sparsely populated) relation between [OIII]/[OII] and $f_{esc}$ with the redshift evolution of [OIII]/[OII] as predicted from local high-z analogs selected by their H$α$ equivalent-width. We find $f_{esc}$ = $5.7_{-3.3}^{+8.3}$% at z=6 and $f_{esc}$ = $10.4_{-6.3}^{+15.5}$% at z=9 for galaxies with log(M/M$_{sun}$) ~ 9.0 (errors given as 1$σ$). However, there is a negative correlation with stellar mass and we find up to 50% larger $f_{esc}$ per 0.5 dex decrease in stellar mass. The population averaged escape fraction increases according to $f_{esc}$ = $f_{esc,0} ((1+z)/3)^a$, with $f_{esc,0} = 2.3 \pm 0.05$% and $a=1.17 \pm 0.02$ at z > 2 for log(M/M$_{sun}$) ~ 9.0. With our empirical prediction of $f_{esc}$ (thus fixing an important previously unknown variable) and further reasonable assumption on clumping factor and the production efficiency of Lyman continuum photons, we conclude that the average population of galaxies is just capable to reionize the universe by z ~ 6.

astro-ph.GA↗