Strong Field-to-field Variation of Lyα Nebulae Populations at z ~= 2.3

Citation:

Yang Y, Zabludoff A, Eisenstein D, Davé R. Strong Field-to-field Variation of Lyα Nebulae Populations at z ~= 2.3. The Astrophysical Journal [Internet]. 2010;719:1654-1671.

Abstract:

Understanding the nature of distant Lyα nebulae, aka "blobs," andconnecting them to their present-day descendants requires constrainingtheir number density, clustering, and large-scale environment. Tomeasure these basic quantities, we conduct a deep narrowband imagingsurvey in four different fields, Chandra Deep Field South (CDFS),Chandra Deep Field North (CDFN), and two COSMOS subfields, for a totalsurvey area of 1.2 deg2. We discover 25 blobs at z = 2.3 withLyα luminosities of L Lyα= (0.7-8) ×1043 erg s-1 and isophotal areas of Aiso = 10-60 sq arcsec. The transition from compact Lyαemitters (LAEs; A iso ~ a few sq arcsec) to extendedLyα blobs (A iso > 10 sq arcsec) is continuous,suggesting a single family perhaps governed by similar emissionmechanisms. Surprisingly, most blobs (16/25) are in one survey field,the CDFS. The six brightest, largest blobs with L Lyαgsim 1.5×1043 erg s-1 and A iso> 16 sq arcsec lie only in the CDFS. These large, bright blobs have a

Notes:

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