The Lyman-alpha signature of the first galaxies

TL;DR

This paper introduces COLT, a Monte Carlo radiative transfer code for simulating Lyman-alpha scattering in early galaxies, revealing how galaxy environment affects observable Lyα signals and implications for high-redshift galaxy detection.

Contribution

We developed COLT, a new parallel Monte Carlo code for Lyα transfer, and applied it to model first galaxies, providing insights into their Lyα signatures and observability with JWST.

Findings

Lyα line profiles depend on density, ionization, and velocity fields.

Detection of first galaxies via Lyα is biased towards those with large H II regions.

Lyα emission from small stellar clusters is generally too faint for JWST detection.

Abstract

We present the Cosmic Lyman-$\alpha$ Transfer code (COLT), a massively parallel Monte-Carlo radiative transfer code, to simulate Lyman-$\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$) resonant scattering through neutral hydrogen as a probe of the first galaxies. We explore the interaction of centrally produced Ly$\alpha$ radiation with the host galactic environment. Ly$\alpha$ photons emitted from the luminous starburst region escape with characteristic features in the line profile depending on the density distribution, ionization structure, and bulk velocity fields. For example, anisotropic ionization exhibits a tall peak close to line centre with a skewed tail that drops off gradually. Idealized models of first galaxies explore the effect of mass, anisotropic H II regions, and radiation pressure driven winds on Ly$\alpha$ observables. We employ mesh refinement to resolve critical structures. We also post-process an ab initio cosmological simulation and examine images captured at various escape distances within the 1 Mpc$^3$ comoving volume. Finally, we discuss the emergent spectra and surface brightness profiles of these objects in the context of high-$z$ observations. The first galaxies will likely be observed through the red damping wing of the Ly$\alpha$ line. Observations will be biased toward galaxies with an intrinsic red peak located far from line centre that reside in extensive H II super bubbles, which allows Hubble flow to sufficiently redshift photons away from line centre and facilitate transmission through the intergalactic medium (IGM). Even with gravitational lensing to boost the luminosity this preliminary work indicates that Ly$\alpha$ emission from stellar clusters within haloes of $M_{\rm vir}<10^9~{\rm M}_\odot$ is generally too faint to be detected by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).