HETDEX Public Source Catalog 1 -- Stacking 50K Lyman Alpha Emitters
Dustin Davis, Karl Gebhardt, Erin Mentuch Cooper, William P. Bowman,, Barbara Garcia Castanheira, John Chisholm, Robin Ciardullo, Maximilian, Fabricius, Daniel J. Farrow, Steven L. Finkelstein, Caryl Gronwall, Eric, Gawiser, Gary J. Hill, Ulrich Hopp, Lindsay R. House

TL;DR
This paper analyzes the ensemble properties of 50,000 Lyman Alpha Emitters from the HETDEX survey by stacking their spectra, revealing average spectral features and physical characteristics of typical high-redshift star-forming galaxies.
Contribution
It presents the first large-scale spectral stacking analysis of 50,000 LAEs, providing detailed average properties and insights into their stellar populations and ionizing radiation leakage.
Findings
Average LAE at z~2.6 is a blue, moderately bright star-forming galaxy.
Stacked spectra reveal strong Lyα emission and potential ionizing photon escape.
Young, metal-poor stellar populations dominate the UV light.
Abstract
We describe the ensemble properties of the Lyman Alpha Emitters (LAEs) found in the HETDEX survey's first public data release, HETDEX Public Source Catalog 1 (Mentuch Cooper et al. 2023). Stacking the low-resolution ( 800) spectra greatly increases the signal-to-noise ratio, revealing spectral features otherwise hidden by noise, and we show that the stacked spectrum is representative of an average member of the set. The flux limited, Ly signal-to-noise ratio restricted stack of 50K HETDEX LAEs shows the ensemble biweight ``average" LAE to be a blue (UV continuum slope and E(B-V) ), moderately bright (M) star forming galaxy with strong Ly emission (log 42.8 and (Ly) 114\AA), and potentially significant leakage of ionizing radiation. The…
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Taxonomy
TopicsGalaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena · Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations · Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae
