Resolving Clumpy versus Extended Lyα in Strongly Lensed, High-redshift Lyα Emitters

Abstract

We present six strongly gravitationally lensed Ly α emitters (LAEs) at z ∼ 4–5 with Hubble Space Telescope (HST) narrowband imaging isolating Lyα. Through complex radiative transfer Lyα encodes information about the spatial distribution and kinematics of the neutral hydrogen upon which it scatters. We investigate the galaxy properties and Ly α morphologies of our sample. Many previous studies of high-redshift LAEs have been limited in Lyα spatial resolution. In this work we take advantage of high-resolution Lyα imaging boosted by lensing magnification, allowing us to probe subgalactic scales that are otherwise inaccessible at these redshifts. We use broadband imaging from HST (rest-frame UV) and Spitzer (rest-frame optical) in spectral energy distribution fitting, providing estimates of the stellar masses (∼10 8–10 9M⊙), stellar population ages (t50 < 40 Myr), and amounts of dust (A V∼0.1–0.6, statistically consistent with zero). We employ nonparametric star formation histories to probe the young stellar populations which create the Lyα. We also examine the offsets between the Ly α and stellar continuum, finding small upper limits of offsets (<0.″1) consistent with studies of low-redshift LAEs, indicating our galaxies are not interacting or merging. Finally, we find a bimodality in our sample’s Ly α morphologies: clumpy and extended. We find a suggestive trend: our LAEs with clumpy Lyα are generally younger than the LAEs with extended Lyα , suggesting a possible correlation with age.