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New methods for identifying Lyman continuum leakers and reionization-epoch analogues

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Katz, H 
Crossed D Signurovčíková, D 
Kimm, T 
Rosdahl, J 
Blaizot, J 

Abstract

Identifying low-redshift galaxies that emit Lyman Continuum radiation (LyC leakers) is one of the primary, indirect methods of studying galaxy formation in the epoch of reionization. However, not only has it proved challenging to identify such systems, it also remains uncertain whether the low-redshift LyC leakers are truly "analogues" of the sources that reionized the Universe. Here, we use high-resolution cosmological radiation hydrodynamics simulations to examine whether simulated galaxies in the epoch of reionization share similar emission line properties to observed LyC leakers at z∼3 and z∼0. We find that the simulated galaxies with high LyC escape fractions (fesc) often exhibit high O32 and populate the same regions of the R23-O32 plane as z∼3 LyC leakers. However, we show that viewing angle, metallicity, and ionisation parameter can all impact where a galaxy resides on the O32-fesc plane. Based on emission line diagnostics and how they correlate with fesc, lower-metallicity LyC leakers at z∼3 appear to be good analogues of reionization-era galaxies. In contrast, local [SII]-deficient galaxies do not overlap with the simulated high-redshift LyC leakers on the SII-BPT diagram; however, this diagnostic may still be useful for identifying leakers. We use our simulated galaxies to develop multiple new diagnostics to identify LyC leakers using IR and nebular emission lines. We show that our model using only [CII]158μm and [OIII]88μm can identify potential leakers from non-leakers from the local Dwarf Galaxy Survey. Finally, we apply this diagnostic to known high-redshift galaxies and find that MACS1149_JD1 at z=9.1 is the most likely galaxy to be actively contributing to the reionization of the Universe.

Description

Keywords

HII regions, galaxies: high-redshift, galaxies: ISM, galaxies: star formation, dark ages, reionization, first stars

Journal Title

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0035-8711
1365-2966

Volume Title

498

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
European Research Council (320596)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/S000623/1)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/N000927/1)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/J005673/1)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/K00333X/1)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/L000636/1)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/M007065/1)
STFC (ST/M007073/1)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/P000673/1)
STFC (ST/T00049X/1)