Illuminating gas in-/outflows in the MUSE deepest fields: discovery of Ly-alpha nebulae around forming galaxies at z~3.3

TL;DR

This study reports the discovery of extended Ly-alpha nebulae at z~3.3 in deep fields, revealing complex gas structures associated with star-forming galaxies and suggesting early galaxy or proto-cluster formation.

Contribution

First detection of large Ly-alpha nebulae at high redshift in deep fields, linking them to star-forming galaxy groups and analyzing their spectral and morphological properties.

Findings

Ly-alpha nebulae are associated with star-forming galaxy groups.

Spectral profiles show double-peaked Ly-alpha emission with a prominent blue peak.

No X-ray emission detected, indicating absence of AGNs.

Abstract

We report on the discovery of extended Ly-alpha nebulae at z~3.3 in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF, ~ 40 kpc X 80 kpc) and behind the Hubble Frontier Fields galaxy cluster MACSJ0416 (~ 40kpc), spatially associated with groups of star-forming galaxies. VLT/MUSE integral field spectroscopy reveals a complex structure with a spatially-varying double peaked Ly-alpha emission. Overall, the spectral profiles of the two Ly-alpha nebulae are remarkably similar, both showing a prominent blue emission, more intense and slightly broader than the red peak. From the first nebula, located in the HUDF, no X-ray emission has been detected, disfavoring the possible presence of AGNs. Spectroscopic redshifts have been derived for 11 galaxies within two arcsec from the nebula and spanning the redshift range 1.037<z<5.97. The second nebula, behind MACSJ0416, shows three aligned star-forming galaxies plausibly associated to the emitting gas. In both systems, the associated galaxies reveal possible intense rest-frame-optical nebular emissions lines [OIII]4959-5007+Hbeta with equivalent widths as high as 1500A rest-frame and star formation rates ranging from a few to tens of solar masses per year. A possible scenario is that of a group of young, star-forming galaxies sources of escaping ionising radiation that induce Ly-alpha fluorescence, therefore revealing the kinematics of the surrounding gas. Also Ly-alpha powered by star-formation and/or cooling radiation may resemble the double peaked spectral properties and the morphology observed here. If the intense blue emission is associated with inflowing gas, then we may be witnessing an early phase of galaxy or a proto-cluster (or group) formation.