2008/12/31 by Steven L. Finkelstein, Seth H. Cohen, Sangeeta Malhotra +1 · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/700/1/276
published as Astrophys.J.700:276-283,2009 · Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Replaced with accepted version. Eight pages, four figures, in emulateapj format
arxiv created 2009/05/21 · openalex publication_date 2009/07/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We present the results of a stellar population analysis of 30 Lyα emitting galaxies (LAEs) at z ∼ 0.3, previously discovered with the Galaxy Evolution Explorer . With a few exceptions, we can accurately fit model spectral energy distributions to these objects, representing the first time this has been done for a large sample of LAEs at z < 3, a gap of ∼8 Gyr in the history of the universe. From the 26/30 LAEs which we can fit, we find an age and stellar mass range of 200 Myr–10 Gyr and 10 9 –10 11 M ☉ , respectively. These objects thus appear to be significantly older and more massive than LAEs at high redshift. We also find that these LAEs show a mild trend toward higher metallicity than those at high redshift, as well as a tighter range of dust attenuation and interstellar medium geometry. These results suggest that low-redshift LAEs have evolved significantly from those at high redshift.