The MUSE-Wide survey: a measurement of the Ly α emitting fraction among z > 3 galaxies

2017/09/05 by Joseph Caruana, Lutz Wisotzki, L. Wisotzki +24 · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Luminosity #Physics #Redshift #astro-ph.GA

paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stx2307

10 pages, 5 figures (MNRAS, updated as per version in press)

openalex publication_date 2017/09/05 · arxiv created 2017/10/31 · arxiv updated 2017/11/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We present a measurement of the fraction of Lyman α (Ly α) emitters (XLy α) amongst HST continuum-selected galaxies at 3 < z < 6 with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on the VLT. Making use of the first 24 MUSE-Wide pointings in GOODS-South, each having an integration time of 1 h, we detect 100 Ly α emitters and find XLy α ≳ 0.5 for most of the redshift range covered, with 29 per cent of the Ly α sample exhibiting rest equivalent widths (rest-EWs) ≤ 15 Å. Adopting a range of rest-EW cuts (0–75 Å), we find no evidence of a dependence of XLy α on either redshift or ultraviolet luminosity.

Citations

• The Subaru/XMM‐NewtonDeep Survey (SXDS). IV. Evolution of Lyα Emitters from \documentclassaastex \usepackageamsbsy \usepackageamsfonts \usepackageamssymb \usepackagebm \usepackagemathrsfs \usepackagepifont \usepackagestmaryrd \usepackagetextcomp \usepackageportland,xspace \usepackageamsmath,amsxtra \usepackage[OT2,OT1]fontenc \newcommand\cyr \renewcommand\rmdefaultwncyr \renewcommand\sfdefaultwncyss \renewcommand\encodingdefaultOT2 \normalfont \selectfont \DeclareTextFontCommand\textcyr\cyr \pagestyleempty \DeclareMathSizes10976 \begindocument \landscape z=3.1 \enddocument to 5.7 in the 1 deg2Field: Luminosity Functions and AGN
• Secondary standard stars for absolute spectrophotometry
• CANDELS: THE COSMIC ASSEMBLY NEAR-INFRARED DEEP EXTRAGALACTIC LEGACY SURVEY
• CANDELS: THE COSMIC ASSEMBLY NEAR-INFRARED DEEP EXTRAGALACTIC LEGACY SURVEY—THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS, IMAGING DATA PRODUCTS, AND MOSAICS

Cited by

• The evolution of the UV luminosity and stellar mass functions of Lyman-α emitters from z ∼ 2 to z ∼ 6
• Recovering the systemic redshift of galaxies from their Lyman alpha line profile
• Spectral Shapes of the Lyα Emission from Galaxies. I. Blueshifted Emission and Intrinsic Invariance with Redshift*
• Texas Spectroscopic Search for Lyα Emission at the End of Reionization I. Constraining the Lyα Equivalent-width Distribution at 6.0 < z < 7.0