English

Redshift evolution of Lyman continuum escape fraction after JWST

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2025-08-26 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Abstract

The LyC escape fraction from galaxies, fescf_{\rm esc}, is strongly boosted by galactic outflows. In the Attenuation-Free Model (AFM) accounting for the properties of z>10z>10 galaxies, radiation-driven outflows develop once the galaxy specific star formation rate, sSFRsSFR25 Gyr1{\rm sSFR} \ge {\rm sSFR}^* \approx 25\ {\rm Gyr}^{-1}. As the cosmic sSFR increases with redshift, so does fesc(z)f_{\rm esc}(z), which, when globally averaged, grows from 0.007 to 0.6 in 0<z<200 < z < 20. We successfully tested the model on specific data sub-samples. Our predictions are consistent with measurements of fescf_{\rm esc} up to z=9.5z=9.5, and provide a physical explanation for the observed decreasing trend of the mean UV galaxy spectral slope, β\beta, towards high-zz.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2505.10619,
  title  = {Redshift evolution of Lyman continuum escape fraction after JWST},
  author = {A. Ferrara and M. Giavalisco and L. Pentericci and E. Vanzella and A. Calabrò and M. Llerena},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.10619},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

7 pages, 3 figures, published by The Open Journal of Astrophysics. Comments welcome (emailto: [email protected])