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[O III] EMISSION AND GAS KINEMATICS IN A LYMAN-ALPHA BLOB AT z ~ 3.1.

Authors :
MCLINDEN, EMILY M.
MALHOTRA, SANGEETA
RHOADS, JAMES E.
HIBON, PASCALE
WEIJMANS, ANNE-MARIE
TILVI, VITHAL
Source :
Astrophysical Journal. 4/10/2013, Vol. 767 Issue 1, p1-11. 11p.
Publication Year :
2013

Abstract

We present spectroscopic measurements of the [O III] emission line from two subregions of strong Lyα emission in a radio-quiet Lyman-alpha blob (LAB). The blob under study is LAB1 at z ~ 3.1, and the [OIII] detections are from the two Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) embedded in the blob halo. The [OIII] measurements were made with LUCIFER on the 8.4 m Large Binocular Telescope and NIRSPEC on 10 m Keck Telescope. Comparing the redshift of the [OIII] measurements to Lyα redshifts from SAURON allows us to take a step toward understanding the kinematics of the gas in the blob. Using both LUCIFER and NIRSPEC we find velocity offsets between the [OIII] and Lyα redshifts that are modestly negative or consistent with 0 km s-1 in both subregions studied (ranging from -72±42-+6±33 km s-1). A negative offset means Lyα is blueshifted with respect to [O III] a positive offset then implies Lyα is redshifted with respect to [O III]. These results may imply that outflows are not primarily responsible for Lyman alpha escape in this LAB, since outflows are generally expected to produce a positive velocity offset. In addition, we present an [O III] line flux upper limit on a third region of LAB1, a region that is unassociated with any underlying galaxy. We find that the [OIII] upper limit from the galaxy-unassociated region of the blob is at least 1.4-2.5 times fainter than the [OIII] flux from one of the LBG-associated regions and has an [O III] to Lyα ratio measured at least 1.9-3.4 times smaller than the same ratio measured from one of the LBGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
0004637X
Volume :
767
Issue :
1
Database :
Academic Search Index
Journal :
Astrophysical Journal
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
90114330
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/767/1/48