The Low-Redshift Lyman Continuum Survey II: New Insights into LyC Diagnostics
Abstract
The Lyman continuum (LyC) cannot be observed at the epoch of reionization (z {\gtrsim} 6) due to intergalactic H I absorption. To identify Lyman continuum emitters (LCEs) and infer the fraction of escaping LyC, astronomers have developed various indirect diagnostics of LyC escape. Using measurements of the LyC from the Low-redshift Lyman Continuum Survey (LzLCS), we present the first statistical test of these diagnostics. While optical depth indicators based on Ly{\alpha}, such as peak velocity separation and equivalent width, perform well, we also find that other diagnostics, such as the [O III]/[O II] flux ratio and star formation rate surface density, predict whether a galaxy is a LCE. The relationship between these galaxy properties and the fraction of escaping LyC flux suggests that LyC escape depends strongly on H I column density, ionization parameter, and stellar feedback. We find LCEs occupy a range of stellar masses, metallicities, star formation histories, and ionization parameters, which may indicate episodic and/or different physical causes of LyC escape.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2203.15649,
title = {The Low-Redshift Lyman Continuum Survey II: New Insights into LyC Diagnostics},
author = {Sophia R. Flury and Anne E. Jaskot and Harry C. Ferguson and Gabor Worseck and Kirill Makan and John Chisholm and Alberto Saldana-Lopez and Daniel Schaerer and Stephan McCandliss and Bingjie Wang and N. M. Ford and M. S. Oey and Timothy Heckman and Zhiyuan Ji and Mauro Giavalisco and Ricardo Amorin and Hakim Atek and Jeremy Blaizot and Sanchayeeta Borthakur and Cody Carr and Marco Castellano and Stefano Cristiani and Stephane de Barros and Mark Dickinson and Steven L. Finkelstein and Brian Fleming and Fabio Fontanot and Thibault Garel and Andrea Grazian and Matthew Hayes and Alaina Henry and Valentin Mauerhofer and Genoveva Micheva and Goran Ostlin and Casey Papovich and Laura Pentericci and Swara Ravindranath and Joakim Rosdahl and Michael Rutkowski and Paola Santini and Claudia Scarlata and Harry Teplitz and Trinh Thuan and Maxime Trebitsch and Eros Vanzella and Anne Verhamme and Xinfeng Xu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.15649},
year = {2022}
}
Comments
ApJ, accepted. 31 pages, 26 figures, 1 table