The Nature of Lyman Alpha Emitters at z=3.1 in the MUSYC Survey
Abstract
The Multiwavelength Survey by Yale-Chile (MUSYC) consists of deep UBVRIzJHK+NB5000 coverage of 1.2 square degrees comprised of four fields. Satellite coverage includes Spitzer-IRAC+MIPS, HST-ACS, GALEX, XMM and Chandra. Multi-object spectroscopy has been obtained with Magellan+IMACS, VLT+VIMOS, and Gemini+GNIRS. MUSYC has used these data to investigate Lyman Alpha Emitters, Lyman break galaxies, Distant red galaxies, Damped Lyman alpha absorption systems, and AGN in the same volume of the universe in order to separate physical properties from selection effects. We have shown that Lyman Alpha Emitters at z=3.1 are predominantly dimmer than the R<25.5 Lyman break galaxies but have similar blue continuua, little dust, average star formation rates of 6 M_sun/yr and an average stellar mass of 5x10^8 M_sun (Gawiser et al. 2006, ApJ 642, L13). Only 2% of these objects show evidence for AGN via X-ray emission or high-ionization emission lines. We will also present other properties of the Lyman Alpha Emitters, including their space density, luminosity function, cosmic star formation rate density, correlation function and dark matter halo mass. A data release of images and catalogs is available at http://www.astro.yale.edu/MUSYC .
We gratefully acknowledge support from NSF grants 00-71238, 01-37927 and HST AR10324.01A, Yale University, and Fundacion Andes. EG and JF acknowledge the support of NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowships.- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006AAS...20922507G