Near-ultraviolet Spectroscopy of Star-forming Galaxies from eBOSS: Signatures of Ubiquitous Galactic-scale Outflows

TL;DR

This study analyzes near-ultraviolet spectra of star-forming galaxies at redshifts 0.6 to 1.2 from eBOSS, revealing widespread galactic outflows through blueshifted absorption and emission features, and introduces a model to interpret these observations.

Contribution

It provides the first large-scale analysis of NUV spectra of SFGs at these redshifts, identifying signatures of outflows and developing a new method to correct emission infill in spectral lines.

Findings

Ubiquitous galactic outflows detected via blueshifted absorption and emission.

Differences in line ratios compared to local star-forming regions and quasars.

A new model explaining absorption and emission features through scattered fluorescent emission.

Abstract

We present the rest-frame near-ultraviolet (NUV) spectroscopy of star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at 0.6<z<1.2 from the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) in SDSS-IV. One of the eBOSS programs is to obtain 2 arcsec (about 15 kpc) fiber spectra of about 200,000 emission-line galaxies (ELGs) at redshift z>0.6. We use the data from the pilot observations of this program, including 8620 spectra of SFGs at 0.6<z<1.2. The median composite spectra of these SFGs at 2200 Ang < \lambda < 4000 Ang feature asymmetric, preferentially blueshifted non-resonant emission, Fe II*, and blueshifted resonant absorption, e.g., Fe II and Mg II, indicating ubiquitous outflows driven by star formation at these redshifts. For the absorption lines, we find a variety of velocity profiles with different degrees of blueshift. Comparing our new observations with the literature, we do not observe the non-resonant emission in the small-aperture (<40 pc) spectra of local star-forming regions with the Hubble Space Telescope, and find the observed line ratios in the SFG spectra to be different from those in the spectra of local star-forming regions, as well as those of quasar absorption-line systems in the same redshift range. We introduce an outflow model that can simultaneously explain the multiple observed properties and suggest that the variety of absorption velocity profiles and the line ratio differences are caused by scattered fluorescent emission filling in on top of the absorption in the large-aperture eBOSS spectra. We develop an observation-driven, model-independent method to correct the emission-infill to reveal the true absorption profiles. Our results show that eBOSS and future dark-energy surveys (e.g., DESI and PFS) will provide rich datasets of NUV spectroscopy for astrophysical applications.