2016/04/10 by Grecco A. Oyarzún, Guillermo A. Blanc, Valentino González +8 · 39 citations
Physics and Astronomy · Psychology · #Alpha (finance) #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Emission spectrum #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #H-alpha #Physics #Psychology #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/2041-8205/821/1/l14
published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters 821(1), L14 (IOP Publishing) · 4 pages, 5 figures
openalex publication_date 2016/04/10 · arxiv created 2016/04/11 · arxiv updated 2016/04/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
ABSTRACT In this work, we show how the stellar mass ( M * ) of galaxies affects the 3 < z < 4.6 Ly α equivalent width (EW) distribution. To this end, we design a sample of 629 galaxies in the M * range from the 3D-HST/CANDELS survey. We perform spectroscopic observations of this sample using the Michigan/Magellan Fiber System, allowing us to measure Ly α fluxes and use 3D-HST/CANDELS ancillary data. In order to study the Ly α EW distribution dependence on M * , we split the whole sample in three stellar mass bins. We find that, in all bins, the distribution is best represented by an exponential profile of the form . Through a Bayesian analysis, we confirm that lower M * galaxies have higher Ly α EWs. We also find that the fraction A of galaxies featuring emission and the e-folding scale W 0 of the distribution anti-correlate with M * , recovering expressions of the forms and . These results are crucial for proper interpretation of Ly α emission trends reported in the literature that may be affected by strong M * selection biases.