Lyman Alpha Galaxies: Primitive, Dusty or Evolved Galaxies?
Steven L. Finkelstein (Arizona State University Dept. of Physics;, Texas A&M University Department of Physics), James E. Rhoads, Sangeeta, Malhotra (ASU School of Earth, Space Exploration), Norman Grogin (Space, Telescope Science Institute; ASU School of Earth, Space Exploration)

TL;DR
This study models stellar populations of 14 high-redshift Lyman alpha emitting galaxies, revealing a bimodal age distribution and emphasizing the role of dust and ISM geometry in their observed properties.
Contribution
It provides the first detailed analysis of the age distribution of LAEs, showing a bimodal pattern and highlighting the impact of dust and ISM structure on their characteristics.
Findings
LAEs show a bimodal age distribution: very young or old.
Dust and ISM geometry significantly influence Lyman alpha emission.
Most LAEs are dusty star-forming galaxies, with a few being evolved.
Abstract
We present stellar population modeling results for 10 newly discovered Lyman alpha emitting galaxies (LAEs), as well as four previously known LAEs at z ~ 4.5 in the Chandra Deep Field - South. We fit stellar population models to these objects in order to learn specifically if there exists more than one class of LAE. Past observational and theoretical evidence has shown that while many LAEs appear to be young, they may be much older, with Lyman alpha EWs enhanced due to resonant scattering of Lyman alpha photons in a clumpy interstellar medium (ISM). Our results show a large range of stellar population age (3 - 500 Myr), stellar mass (1.6 x 10^8 - 5.0 x 10^10 Msol) and dust extinction (A_1200 = 0.3 - 4.5 mag), broadly consistent with previous studies. With such a large number of individually analyzed objects, we have looked at the distribution of stellar population ages in LAEs for the…
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