The First Combined H$\alpha$ and Rest-UV Spectroscopic Probe of Galactic Outflows at High Redshift

TL;DR

This study combines Hα and rest-UV spectroscopy to analyze galactic outflows at high redshift, revealing their properties and relation to galaxy characteristics with unprecedented multi-phase data.

Contribution

It provides the first simultaneous UV and Hα spectroscopic analysis of outflows in high-redshift galaxies, offering new insights into outflow detection and properties.

Findings

Outflows detected in 49% of UV sample and 30% of Hα sample.

Galaxies with outflows have higher SFR and $ m \Sigma_{SFR}$.

No strong correlation between outflow velocity and galaxy properties.

Abstract

We investigate the multi-phase structure of gas flows in galaxies. We study 80 galaxies during the epoch of peak star formation ($1.4\leq z\leq2.7$) using data from Keck/LRIS and VLT/KMOS. Our analysis provides a simultaneous probe of outflows using UV emission and absorption features and H$\alpha$ emission. With this unprecedented data set, we examine the properties of gas flows estimated from LRIS and KMOS in relation to other galaxy properties, such as star formation rate (SFR), star formation rate surface density ($\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$), stellar mass (M$_*$), and main sequence offset ($\Delta$MS). We find no strong correlations between outflow velocity measured from rest-UV lines centroids and galaxy properties. However, we find that galaxies with detected outflows show higher averages in SFR, $\Sigma_{\rm SFR}$, and $\Delta$MS than those lacking outflow detections, indicating a connection between outflow and galaxy properties. Furthermore, we find a lower average outflow velocity than previously reported, suggesting greater absorption at the systemic redshift of the galaxy. Finally, we detect outflows in 49% of our LRIS sample and 30% in the KMOS sample, and find no significant correlation between outflow detection and inclination. These results may indicate that outflows are not collimated and that H$\alpha$ outflows have a lower covering fraction than low-ionization interstellar absorption lines. Additionally, these tracers may be sensitive to different physical scales of outflow activity. A larger sample size with a wider dynamic range in galaxy properties is needed to further test this picture.