Browsing by Author "Lai, Kamson"

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    EVOLUTION IN THE CONTINUUM MORPHOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF Lyα-EMITTING GALAXIES FROM z=3.1 TO z=2.1
    (2012) Bond, Nicholas A.; Gawiser, Eric; Guaita, Lucia; Padilla, Nelson; Gronwall, Caryl; Ciardullo, Robin; Lai, Kamson
    We present a rest-frame ultraviolet morphological analysis of 108 z similar or equal to 2.1 Ly alpha emitters (LAEs) in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South and compare it to a similar sample of 171 LAEs at z similar or equal to 3.1. Using Hubble Space Telescope images from the Galaxy Evolution from Morphology and SEDs survey, Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, and Hubble Ultradeep Field, we measure size and photometric component distributions, where photometric components are defined as distinct clumps of UV-continuum emission. At both redshifts, >80% of LAEs have observed half-light radii < 2 kpc, but the median half-light radius rises from 0.95 +/- 0.04 kpc at z = 3.1 to 1.41 +/- 0.14 kpc at z = 2.1. A similar evolution is seen in the sizes of individual rest-UV components, but there is no evidence for evolution in the number of multi-component systems. In the z = 2.1 sample, we see clear correlations between the size of an LAE and other physical properties derived from its spectral energy distribution (SED). LAEs are found to be larger for galaxies with higher stellar mass, star formation rate, and dust obscuration, but there is no evidence for a trend between equivalent width and half-light radius at either redshift. The presence of these correlations suggests that a wide range of objects are being selected by LAE surveys at z similar or equal to 2, including a significant fraction of objects for which a massive and moderately extended population of old stars underlies the young starburst giving rise to the Ly alpha emission.
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    Lyα-emitting galaxies at z=3.1
    (2007) Gawiser, Eric; Francke, Harold; Lai, Kamson; Schawinski, Kevin; Gronwall, Caryl; Ciardullo, Robin; Quadri, Ryan; Orsi, Alvaro; Barrientos, Felipe; Blanc, Guillermo A.; Fazio, Giovanni; Feldmeier, John J.; Huang, Jia-Sheng; Infante, Leopoldo; Lira, Paulina; Padilla, Nelson; Taylor, Edward N.; Treister, Ezequiel; Urry, C. Megan; Van Dokkum, Pieter G.; Virani, Shanil N.
    We studied the clustering properties and multiwavelength spectral energy distributions of a complete sample of 162 Ly alpha- emitting (LAE) galaxies at z similar or equal to 3: 1 discovered in deep narrowband MUSYC imaging of the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South. LAEs were selected to have observed frame equivalent widths >80 angstrom and emission line fluxes >1.5 x 10(-17) ergs cm(-2) s(-1). Only 1% of our LAE sample appears to host AGNs. The LAEs exhibit a moderate spatial correlation length of r(0) = 3.6(-1.0)(+0.8) Mpc, corresponding to a bias factor b = 1.7(-0.4)(+0.3), which implies median dark matter halo masses of log(10)M(med) = 10.9(-0.9)(+0.5) M-circle dot. Comparing the number density of LAEs, 1.5 +/- 0.3 x 10(-3) Mpc(-3), with the number density of these halos finds a mean halo occupation similar to 1%-10%. The evolution of galaxy bias with redshift implies that most z 3: 1 LAEs evolve into present-day galaxies with L < 2.5L*, whereas other z > 3 galaxy populations typically evolve into more massive galaxies. Halo merger trees show that z 0 descendants occupy halos with a wide range of masses, with a median descendant mass close to that of L*. Only 30% of LAEs have sufficient stellar mass (>similar to 3 x 10(9) M-circle dot) to yield detections in deep Spitzer IRAC imaging. A two-population SED fit to the stacked UBVRIzJK+[3.6, 4.5, 5.6, 8.0] mu m fluxes of the IRAC-undetected objects finds that the typical LAE has low stellar mass (1.0(-0.4)(+0.6) 10(9) M-circle dot), moderate star formation rate (2 +/- 1 M-circle dot yr(-1)), a young component age of 20(-10)(+30) Myr, and little dust (A(V) < 0: 2). The bestfit model has 20% of the mass in the young stellar component, but models without evolved stars are also allowed.