We summarise the main results of recent work on the Lyman break galaxy population which takes advantage of newly commissioned instrumentation on the VLT and Keck telescopes to push the detection of these objects to new wavelengths and more sensitive limits

Adelberger, Kurt L.

Cuby, Jean-Gabriel

Dickinson, Mark

Giavalisco, Mauro

Moorwood, Alan F. M.

Pettini, Max

Shapley, Alice E.

Steidel, Charles C.

English

Caltech Authors - Main

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Deep Observations of Lyman Break Galaxies
Max Pettini1, Charles C. Steidel2, Alice E. Shapley2, Kurt L. Adelberger2,
Alan F.M. Moorwood3, Jean-Gabriel Cuby3, Mark Dickinson4, and Mauro
Giavalisco4
1 Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, England
2 Palomar Observatory, California Institute of Technology, MS 105–24, Pasadena,
CA 91125, USA
3 European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 2, D-85748 Garching,
Germany; and Alonso de Cordova 3107, Santiago, Chile
4 Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD
21218, USA
Abstract. We summarise the main results of recent work on the Lyman break
galaxy population which takes advantage of newly commissioned instrumentation
on the VLT and Keck telescopes to push the detection of these objects to new
wavelengths and more sensitive limits. 1
1 Introduction
Given the specialist nature of this meeting, I shall concentrate on the most
recent results in our study of Lyman break galaxies (LBGs), rather than give
a broad perspective of the high redshift galaxy population; up to date reviews
of this subject can be found in the articles by Dickinson (2000), Ferguson et
al. (2000), and Pettini (2000). As we shall see, the work I am about to de-
scribe uses ‘deep’ observations of LBGs which push the capabilities of present
instrumentation to its limits.
Since the commissioning of the high resolution, near infrared spectro-
graphs on the VLT (ISAAC) and Keck (NIRSPEC) telescopes in mid-1999,
we have been engaged in an extensive programme to record the rest-frame
optical spectra of the brightest Lyman break galaxies with the aim of com-
plementing and extending the information provided by their rest-frame UV
spectra on which most of our knowledge of these objects rests at the moment.
Apart from the surprises often associated with opening a new wavelength
window, there are several obvious scientific motivations.
The luminosity of the Balmer lines, primarily Hα and Hβ, gives a measure
of the star formation rate which is directly comparable to the values deduced
in local surveys. Furthermore, since the optical emission lines and the far-UV
continuum do not respond to dust extinction to the same degree, the relative
1 Proceedings of the ESO Deep Fields Symposium. To be published in ESO
Astrophysics Symposia, ed. S. Cristiani (Berlin: Springer)
2 Max Pettini
luminosity of a galaxy in these two tracers of star formation could in princi-
ple be used as a reddening indicator. When integrated over an entire galaxy,
the widths of the nebular lines should reflect the velocity dispersion of the
H II regions within the overall gravitational potential so that a kinematical
mass may be deduced. This is not possible in the UV, because the interstellar
absorption lines are sensitive to small amounts of gas accelerated to high ve-
locities by energetic events such as supernova explosions and bulk outflows,
while the stellar absorption lines from OB stars are intrinsically broad. Fi-
nally, there are well established chemical abundance diagnostics based on the
relative strengths of nebular emission lines, primarily [O II], [O III] and Hβ.
Abundance measurements are much more difficult in the UV where the more
easily observed interstellar lines are generally saturated so that their equiva-
lent widths depend mostly on the velocity dispersion of the gas and only to
a lesser extent on the column density of the absorbing ions.
With the large sample of Lyman break galaxies now available (nearly
1000 spectroscopically confirmed objects), it is possible to isolate redshifts
which place the transitions of interest in gaps between the strong OH lines
which dominate the near-IR sky; here the background is sufficiently dark
for faint extragalactic work to become possible. Figure 1 shows an example
of the quality of spectra which can be secured with a 2-3 hour integration
with NIRSPEC or ISAAC. Together with observations from the literature,
Fig. 1. Example of a NIRSPEC K-band spectrum of a Lyman break galaxy. The
objects targeted in our survey typically haveK = 21 (on the Vega scale) and remain
undetected in the continuum, although the emission lines are easily seen with 2-3
hour exposures. The dotted line shows the 1σ error spectrum.
our survey consists of 19 LBGs drawn from the bright end of the luminosity
Lyman Break Galaxies 3
function, from ∼ L∗ to ∼ 4L∗. Overall we find that galaxies observed are
very uniform in their near-IR properties. The spectra are dominated by the
emission lines, and the continuum is detected in only two objects, one of
which—West MMD11—has an unusually red optical-to-infrared color with
(R −KAB)= 2.72 . In all cases [O III] is stronger than Hβ and [O II]. The
line widths span a relatively small range, with values of the one dimensional
velocity dispersion σ between 50 and 115 km s−1.
2 Star Formation Rates and Dust Extinction
The star formation rates deduced from the luminosity of the Hβ emission
line agree within a factor of ∼ 2 with the values implied by the continuum
luminosity at 1500 Å before any corrections for dust extinction are applied
(see Figure 2). There is no trend in the present sample for the former to
Fig. 2. Comparison between the values of star formation rate deduced from the
luminosities in the Hβ emission line and in the UV continuum at 1500 Å. The color
(G−R) measures the intrinsic UV spectral slope after statistical correction for the
Lyα forest opacity. Note that in the SCUBA source West MMD11, which is also
the reddest object in the present sample, the strength of Hβ relative to the UV
continuum is typical of the rest of the sample and SFRHβ ≃SFRUV.
be larger than the latter, as may have been expected from the shape of all
reddening curves which rise from the optical to the UV. Evidently, any such
differential extinction must be small compared with the uncertainties in cali-
brating these two different measures of the SFR (Kennicutt 1998; Charlot &
Longhetti 2001). This conclusion is in agreement with the results of similar
recent studies of UV-selected star-forming galaxies at z <∼ 1 (e.g. Flores et
al. 1999; Sullivan et al. 2000; Bell & Kennicutt 2001) and contradicts the
4 Max Pettini
commonly held view that the Balmer lines are more reliable star formation
indicators than the UV continuum—from our sample one would obtain es-
sentially the same star formation rate density using either method.
3 Oxygen Abundance
In five cases (four new ones and one previously published) we attempted
to deduce values of the abundance of oxygen by applying the familiar R23
([O II] + [O III]/Hβ) method which has been extensively used in local H II
regions. We found that generally there remains a significant uncertainty, by
up to 1 dex, in the value of (O/H) because of the double-valued nature of the
R23 calibrator. Thus, in the galaxies observed oxygen could be as abundant
as in the interstellar medium near the Sun, or as low as ∼ 1/10 solar. While
this degeneracy can in principle be resolved by measuring the [N II]/Hα
ratio (and in the one case where this has proved possible—Teplitz et al.
2000—values of (O/H) near the upper end of the range are indicated), this
option is not normally available for galaxies at z ≃ 3 because the relevant
lines are redshifted beyond the K-band. Even so, it is still possible to draw
Fig. 3. Metallicity-luminosity relation for local galaxies, from the compilation by
Kobulnicky & Koo (2001) adjusted to the H0 = 70 km s
−1 Mpc−1, ΩM = 0.3,
ΩΛ = 0.7 cosmology adopted in this work. The vertical bar in the bottom right-hand
corner gives an indication of the typical error in log(O/H). In the Sun 12+ log(O/H)
= 8.83 (Grevesse & Sauval 1998). The box shows the approximate location of the
Lyman break galaxies in our sample at a median z = 3.1 . Like many local H II
galaxies, LBGs are overluminous for their metallicity. The height of the box results
largely from the double-valued nature of the calibration of (O/H) in terms of the
R23 index; the one case where the ambiguity can be resolved (MS 1512-cB58) lies
in the upper half of the box.
Lyman Break Galaxies 5
some interesting conclusions. First, LBGs are definitely more metal-rich than
damped Lyα systems at the same epoch, which typically have metallicities
Z ≈ 1/30Z⊙. This conclusion is consistent with the view that DLAs are
drawn preferentially from the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function and
are not the most actively star forming galaxies, as indicated by essentially
all attempts up to now to detect them via direct imaging. Second, LBGs do
not conform to today’s metallicity-luminosity relation and are overluminous
for their oxygen abundance (see Figure 3). This is probably an indication
that they have relatively low mass-to-light ratios, as also suggested by their
kinematical masses; an additional possibility is that the whole (O/H) vs. MB
correlation shifts to lower metallicities at high z, when galaxies were younger.
4 Kinematical Masses
If the emission line widths reflect the relative motions of H II regions within
the gravitational potential of the galaxies, the implied masses are of the order
of 1010M⊙ within half-light radii of ∼ 2.5 kpc. This is likely to be a lower
limit to the total masses of the galaxies as would be obtained, for example,
if we could trace their rotation curves. A more serious uncertainty, however,
is the real origin of the velocity dispersions we measure. We do not see any
Fig. 4. One dimensional velocity dispersion of nebular emission lines in Lyman
break galaxies as a function of absolute magnitude in the rest-frame far-UV (left)
and B-band (right). The vertical bar shows the typical error on the measurements
of σ. Curiously, the SCUBA source West MMD11, which has the reddest (R−K)
color in the present sample, exhibits one of the smallest velocity dispersions.
correlation between σ and galaxy luminosity in either our limited sample (see
Figure 4) nor in an on-going study by some of us of a much larger sample
of galaxies at z ≃ 1 which span five magnitudes in luminosity and yet show
6 Max Pettini
very similar line widths to those found here. In two cases we have found
hints of ordered motions in spatially resolved profiles of the [O III] lines, but
attempts to use high resolution images to clarify whether they are indicative
of rotating disks proved to be inconclusive.
5 Galactic Superwinds
In all the galaxies observed we find evidence for bulk motions of several hun-
dred km s−1 from the velocities of the interstellar absorption lines—which are
systematically blueshifted—and Lyα emission—which is always redshifted—
relative to the nebular emission lines (see Figure 5). We interpret this effect as
Fig. 5. Velocity offsets of the interstellar absorption lines (blue or dark grey) and
of the Lyα emission line (red or light grey) relative to [O III] and Hβ. Large scale
motions of the order of several hundred km s−1 are indicated by the systematic
tendency for the former to be blueshifted and the latter redshifted relative to the
nebular emission lines.
indicative of galaxy-wide outflows which appear to be a common characteris-
tic of galaxies with large rates of star formation per unit area at high, as well
as low, redshifts (e.g. Heckman 2000). Such ‘superwinds’ involve comparable
amounts of matter as is being turned into stars (the mass outflow rate is of
the same order as the star formation rate) and about 10% of the total kinetic
energy delivered by the starburst (Pettini et al. 2000). Furthermore, they
have a number of important astrophysical consequences. They provide self-
regulation to the star formation process (Efstathiou 2000); can distribute the
products of stellar nucleosynthesis over large volumes (the outflow speeds
Lyman Break Galaxies 7
often exceed the escape velocities—Ferrara et al. 2000); may account for
some of the ‘missing’ metals at high redshift (Pettini 1999; Pagel 2000); and
may also allow Lyman continuum photons to leak from the galaxies into the
intergalactic medium, easing the problem of how the universe came to be
reionized.
6 The Contribution of Galaxies to the Ionising
Background
Three of us (Steidel et al. 2001) have recently addressed this last point quan-
titatively by adding together the spectra of 29 Lyman break galaxies at a
mean redshift 〈z〉 = 3.40 ± 0.09 which places the Lyman continuum region
at wavelengths accessible to LRIS. The composite spectrum, reproduced in
Figure 6, shows a positive signal at the 4.8σ level between rest-frame wave-
lengths 880 and 910 Å. After allowance for the opacity of the intergalactic
Fig. 6. Composite spectrum of 29 Lyman break galaxies at 〈z〉 = 3.40. Note the
average residual flux in the Lyman continuum between 880 and 910 Å in the rest
frame. The most prominent interstellar (blue and above the zero level) and stellar
(green and below the zero level) absorption lines are identified.
medium, even this weak signal implies a surprisingly large escape fraction—
the emergent flux density below the Lyman limit is 20% of that at 1500 Å,
8 Max Pettini
which has been well quantified by extensive surveys. This may well be an
upper limit to the value appropriate to the whole population because the
galaxies which contributed to the composite spectrum in Figure 6 are drawn
from the bluest quartile of our full sample and may thus the most ‘leaky’
objects among a spread of properties. On the other hand, the ubiquitous
presence of superwinds in Lyman break galaxies suggests that their interstel-
lar media may commonly develop large cavities which can provide a route for
the Lyman continuum photons to escape from the regions of star formation
into the IGM.
If the escape fraction (as defined above) of 20% applies generally, the
contribution of galaxies to the metagalactic radiation field at z ≃ 3.5 is
Jν ≈ 1.2± 0.3× 10
−21 ergs s−1 cm−2 Hz−1 sr−1. This value is close to most
estimates of Jν based on the proximity effect in the Lyα forest, and exceeds
the contribution from QSOs by about a factor of 5. Presumably, the balance
between galaxies and QSOs as the providers of Lyman continuum photons
shifts further in favour of the former as we move to even higher redshifts
(Steidel et al. 1999; Fan et al. 2001), making it quite plausible that stars,
rather than AGNs, were responsible for the end of the ‘dark ages’.
This conclusion, if supported by data soon to be secured with the new
UV-sensitive arm of LRIS, bodes well for the ‘Very Deep Fields’ which are the
goal of the Advanced Camera for Surveys on HST and eventually the NGST .
Max Pettini would like to express his gratitude to the organisers of this
enjoyable and timely meeting.
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Deep Observations of Lyman Break Galaxies

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