Filamentary Large Scale Structure Traced by Six Ly-alpha Blobs at z=2.3

TL;DR

This study reports the discovery of six large Ly-alpha blobs in a high-redshift protocluster, revealing filamentary large-scale structure and alignment that suggest a link between galaxy formation processes and cosmic web formation.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed mapping of multiple giant Ly-alpha blobs within a single protocluster, highlighting their filamentary arrangement and alignment with large-scale structures.

Findings

Six giant Ly-alpha blobs detected in a dense protocluster.

Blobs form two intersecting filaments spanning at least 12 Mpc.

Most blobs are aligned with the filaments within ~10 degrees.

Abstract

Extended nebulae of Ly-alpha emission ("Ly-alpha blobs") are known to be associated with overdense regions at high redshift. Here we present six large Ly-alpha blobs in a previously known protocluster with galaxy overdensity delta ~ 7 at z = 2.3; this is the richest field of giant Ly-alpha blobs detected to date. The blobs have linear sizes >~100 kpc and Ly-alpha luminosities of ~10^43 erg/s. The positions of the blobs define two linear filaments with an extent of at least 12 comoving Mpc; these filaments intersect at the center of one of the blobs. Measurement of the position angles of the blobs indicates that five of the six are aligned with these filaments to within ~10 degrees, suggesting a connection between the physical processes powering extended Ly-alpha emission and those driving structure on larger scales.