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The utility of Ly α emission lines as a probe of interactions between high redshift galaxies and their environments
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Childs, H. J. T. and Stanway, Elizabeth R. (2018) The utility of Ly α emission lines as a probe of interactions between high redshift galaxies and their environments. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 480 (2). pp. 1938-1949. doi:10.1093/mnras/sty1974 ISSN 0035-8711.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty1974
Abstract
The Ly α emission line is the strongest feature in the spectrum of most high redshift galaxies, and is typically observed as being highly asymmetric due to galactic outflows. Quantifying this asymmetry is challenging. Here, we explore how measurements of one parametrization, Ly α skewness are affected by instrumental resolution and detection signal-to-noise ratio and thus whether this can be extended throughout the archive. We model these effects through simulated lines and apply our derived corrections to existing archival data sets (including sources observed with FORS2 and DEIMOS) to reconstruct the intrinsic line emission parameters. We find a large uncertainty in parameter reconstruction at low resolutions (R ≤ 3000) and high skew values, as well as substantial random errors resulting from the masking of sky lines. We suggest that interpretations of spectral line asymmetry should be made with caution, while a simpler parametrization, like B/R (blue-red flux asymmetry), is likely to yield more robust results. We see a possible weak trend in velocity width with mass, although there is no evidence in the data for a reliable correlation of skew with galaxy mass, star formation rate, or age at z
= 4–5. Using our results, we investigate the possibilities of recovering emission-line asymmetry with current and future instruments.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | |||||||||
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| Subjects: | Q Science > QB Astronomy | |||||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Physics | |||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Red shift, Galaxies -- Evolution, Kinematics, Dynamics | |||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society | |||||||||
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press | |||||||||
| ISSN: | 0035-8711 | |||||||||
| Official Date: | 21 October 2018 | |||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 480 | |||||||||
| Number: | 2 | |||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 1938-1949 | |||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1093/mnras/sty1974 | |||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | |||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | |||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | |||||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 26 July 2018 | |||||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 8 October 2018 | |||||||||
| RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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