2026/07/25 by Nicole Firestone, Eric Gawiser, Kartheik G. Iyer +14
#astro-ph.GA
In this work, we aim to measure the star formation stochasticity of Lyman Alpha Emitting Galaxies (LAEs) at Cosmic Noon. We identify 270 LAEs from the HETDEX Survey in the COSMOS field with rest-UV-through-NIR photometry from CANDELS\null. For each LAE, we perform non-parametric gaussian-process star formation history (SFH) reconstruction using the Dense Basis method. Our HETDEX LAE sample is described well by the three SFH archetypes defined for ODIN LAEs in Firestone et al. 2025 with comparable frequency: First Burst, Dominant Burst, and Nondominant Burst. The rapidly rising Star Formation Rates (SFRs) of First Burst LAEs are not adequately represented in traditional SFR100-M_* diagrams, where SFR100 is averaged over the most recent 100Myr. This motivates the usage of SFR10-M_*, where SFR10 is averaged over the most recent 10Myr. We introduce the Star Formation Stochasticity Diagram, a diagnostic tool that probes variations in galaxies' SFRs across cosmic time. By eliminating the confounding factor of redshift evolution, we are able to employ a gaussian mixture model to decompose our ratio of short- vs.long-term SFR into statistically motivated sub-populations. This agnostic component decomposition reveals three populations consistent with the empirical LAE SFH archetypes. We can, therefore, summarize the overall stellar mass assembly of LAEs with this ratio, even without viewing their full star formation histories.