English

Circumgalactic Ly$\alpha$ emission around submillimeter-bright galaxies with different quasar contributions

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2023-11-01 v1

Abstract

We present VLT/MUSE observations targeting the extended Lyman-α\alpha (Lyα\alpha) emission of five high-redshift (zz\sim3-4) submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) with increasing quasar (QSO) radiation: two SMGs, two SMGs hosting a QSO, and one SMG hosting a QSO with a SMG companion (QSO+SMG). These sources should be located in dark matter halos of comparable masses (average mass of MDM1012.2MM_{\rm DM}\sim10^{12.2}\,{\rm M}_\odot). We quantify the luminosity and extent of the Lyα\alpha emission, together with its kinematics, and examine four Lyα\alpha powering mechanisms: photoionization from QSOs/star formation, shocks by galactic/QSO outflows, gravitational cooling radiation, and Lyα\alpha photons resonant scattering. We find a variety of Lyα\alpha luminosities and extents, with the QSO+SMG system displaying the most extended and bright nebula, followed by the SMGs hosting a QSO, and finally the undetected circumgalactic medium (CGM) of SMGs. This diversity implies that gravitational cooling is unlikely to be the main powering mechanism. We show that photoionization from the QSO and QSO outflows can contribute to power the emission for average densities nH>0.5n_{\rm H}>0.5\,cm3^{-3}. Moreover, the observed Lyα\alpha luminosities scale with the QSO's budget of Lyα\alpha photons modulo the dust content in each galaxy, highlighting a possible contribution from resonant scattering of QSO's radiation in powering the nebulae. We find larger Lyα\alpha linewidths (FWHM1200\gtrsim 1200\,km\,s1^{-1}) than usually reported around radio-quiet systems, pointing to large-scale outflows. A statistical survey targeting similar high-redshift massive systems with known host properties is needed to confirm our findings.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2308.15955,
  title  = {Circumgalactic Ly$\alpha$ emission around submillimeter-bright galaxies with different quasar contributions},
  author = {Vale González Lobos and Fabrizio Arrigoni Battaia and Seok-Jun Chang and Max Gronke and Guinevere Kauffmann and Chian-Chou Chen and Hai Fu and Aura Obreja and Emanuele P. Farina},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2308.15955},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

17 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ