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arXiv · 2102.05516

The MUSE Extremely Deep Field: the Cosmic Web in Emission at High Redshift

Roland Bacon·David Mary·Thibault Garel·Jeremy Blaizot·Michael Maseda·Joop Schaye·Lutz Wisotzki·Simon Conseil·Jarle Brinchmann·Floriane Leclercq·Valentina Abril-Melgarejo·Leindert Boogaard·Nicolas Bouché·Thierry Contini·Anna Feltre·Bruno Guiderdoni·Christian Herenz·Wolfram Kollatschny·Haruka Kusakabe·Jorryt Matthee·Léo Michel-Dansac·Themiya Nanayakkara·Johan Richard·Martin Roth·Kasper B. Schmidt·Matthias Steinmetz·Laurence Tresse·Tanya Urrutia·Anne Verhamme·Peter M. Weilbacher·Johannes Zabl·Sebastiaan L. Zoutendijk
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Abstract

We report the discovery of diffuse extended Ly-alpha emission from redshift 3.1 to 4.5, tracing cosmic web filaments on scales of 2.5-4 comoving Mpc. These structures have been observed in overdensities of Ly-alpha emitters in the MUSE Extremely Deep Field, a 140 hour deep MUSE observation located in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Among the 22 overdense regions identified, 5 are likely to harbor very extended Ly-alpha emission at high significance with an average surface brightness of $\mathrm{5 \times 10^{-20} erg s^{-1} cm^{-2} arcsec^{-2}}$. Remarkably, 70% of the total Ly-alpha luminosity from these filaments comes from beyond the circumgalactic medium of any identified Ly-alpha emitters. Fluorescent Ly-alpha emission powered by the cosmic UV background can only account for less than 34% of this emission at z$\approx$3 and for not more than 10% at higher redshift. We find that the bulk of this diffuse emission can be reproduced by the unresolved Ly-alpha emission of a large population of ultra low luminosity Ly-alpha emitters ($\mathrm{<10^{40} erg s^{-1}}$), provided that the faint end of the Ly-alpha luminosity function is steep ($\alpha \lessapprox -1.8$), it extends down to luminosities lower than $\mathrm{10^{38} - 10^{37} erg s^{-1}}$ and the clustering of these Ly-alpha emitters is significant (filling factor $< 1/6$). If these Ly-alpha emitters are powered by star formation, then this implies their luminosity function needs to extend down to star formation rates $\mathrm{< 10^{-4} M_\odot yr^{-1}}$. These observations provide the first detection of the cosmic web in Ly-alpha emission in typical filamentary environments and the first observational clue for the existence of a large population of ultra low luminosity Ly-alpha emitters at high redshift.

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Roland Bacon, David Mary, Thibault Garel, Jeremy Blaizot, Michael Maseda, Joop Schaye, Lutz Wisotzki, Simon Conseil, Jarle Brinchmann, Floriane Leclercq, Valentina Abril-Melgarejo, Leindert Boogaard, Nicolas Bouché, Thierry Contini, Anna Feltre, Bruno Guiderdoni, Christian Herenz, Wolfram Kollatschny, Haruka Kusakabe, Jorryt Matthee, Léo Michel-Dansac, Themiya Nanayakkara, Johan Richard, Martin Roth, Kasper B. Schmidt, Matthias Steinmetz, Laurence Tresse, Tanya Urrutia, Anne Verhamme, Peter M. Weilbacher, Johannes Zabl, Sebastiaan L. Zoutendijk. 2021-02-10. The MUSE Extremely Deep Field: the Cosmic Web in Emission at High Redshift. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202039887

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