Power-law Emission-line Wings and Radiation-Driven Superwinds in Local Lyman Continuum Emitters

TL;DR

This study analyzes broad emission-line wings in 26 local Lyman continuum emitting galaxies, revealing two feedback mechanisms—radiation-driven superwinds and supernova-driven feedback—linked to LyC escape, with implications for understanding galaxy winds and ionizing photon escape.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed spectroscopic evidence for dual feedback modes in LyC emitters, connecting emission-line wing morphology to feedback mechanisms and LyC escape.

Findings

Power-law wings indicate radiation-driven superwinds linked to LyC escape.

Gaussian wings are associated with supernova-driven feedback at low O32 and high metallicity.

Wind parameters depend more on UV luminosity than on covering fraction.

Abstract

We investigate broad emission-line wings, reaching $\leq 800\rm~km~s^{-1}$, observed in 26 galaxies with Lyman continuum (LyC) observations, primarily from the Low-redshift Lyman Continuum Survey (LzLCS). Using Magellan/MIKE, VLT/X-shooter, and WHT/ISIS high-resolution spectroscopy, we show that this fast gas appears to probe the dominant feedback mechanisms linked to LyC escape. We find that in 14 galaxies, the wings are best fit with power laws of slope $\alpha \sim -3.5 \text{ to } -1.6$, with four others best fit by Gaussians of width $\sigma_{\rm BW} \sim 300~\rm km~s^{-1}$; the remaining eight show ambiguous wing morphologies. Gaussian wings are found only at low $O_{32}$ = $[\rm O~III]\lambda5007/[O~II]\lambda3726,3729$ and high metallicity, while power-law wings span the full range of these parameters. The general evidence suggests a dual-mode paradigm for LyC escape: radiation-driven superwinds traced by power-law wings and supernova-driven feedback traced by Gaussian wings. For the former, the $<3$ Myr-old, pre-supernova stellar population correlates with more luminous, faster winds. The data also show that radiation-driven wind parameters like wind luminosity and power-law slope $\alpha$ depend on the UV luminosity more than the optically thick covering fraction, consistent with ``picket-fence" radiative transfer. Observed $\alpha$ values flatten with both escaping LyC luminosity and higher extinction, while still preserving the anticorrelation between these two quantities. Additionally, the differential between red and blue slopes implies that extinction and dense gas are centrally concentrated relative to the wind emission. Overall, our results show that power-law emission-line wings probe LyC-driven winds and LyC escape in metal-poor starbursts.