Faint Resonantly Scattered Lyman Alpha Emission from the Absorption Troughs of Damped Lyman Alpha Systems at z ~ 3

TL;DR

This study shows that faint Lyman alpha emission observed in absorption troughs of damped Lyman alpha systems at z ~ 3 matches the spectral profiles and luminosities of faint Lyman alpha emitters, linking them as host galaxies.

Contribution

It provides evidence connecting faint Lyman alpha emitters to the host galaxies of damped Lyman alpha systems at high redshift.

Findings

Faint Lyman alpha emission in DLAS absorption troughs is consistent with known faint emitters.

Supports the identification of faint emitters as DLAS host galaxies.

Spectral profiles and luminosities align with previous detections.

Abstract

We demonstrate that the Lyman alpha emission in the absorption troughs of a large sample of stacked damped Lyman alpha absorption systems (DLAS) presented by Rahmani et al (2010) is consistent with the spectral profiles and luminosities of a recently detected population of faint Lyman alpha emitters at z ~ 3. This result supports the suggestion that the faint emitters are to be identified with the host galaxies of DLAS at these redshifts.