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Claudia Scarlata

Publications and source records attributed to Claudia Scarlata.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Spatially Resolved Nebular-Stellar Reddening with JWST/NIRISS

An accurate determination of the dust attenuation within galaxies is essential to derive key physical properties such as the star formation rate (SFR). We present an analysis using the JWST/NIRISS data from the GLASS-JWST ERS programme to investigate and characterise the stellar and nebular reddening of galaxies at $1.0<z<2.4$, down to the sub-kpc scale. We use a multiregion fitting method to extract high-quality H$α$ and H$β$ emission line maps for 99 individual galaxies across a stellar mass range $7.0<\log_{10}(M_*/\mathrm{M}_{\odot})<10.5$. We find no evidence for ratios of the Balmer decrement (H$α$/H$β$) below the intrinsic limit for Case B recombination, beyond the expected variation from observational uncertainties. We reproduce the local correlation between the Balmer decrement and total stellar mass, and find no measurable difference when splitting the sample by redshift, with negligible attenuation below $\log_{10}(M_*/\mathrm{M}_{\odot})\lesssim8.5$. Similarly, the best-fit relation between the nebular and continuum reddening follows the same relation as in local starburst galaxies, $E(B-V)_{\mathrm{SED}} = (0.46\pm0.02)E(B-V)_{\mathrm{neb}}$, together indicating no significant evolution in the dust geometry within galaxies out to $z\lesssim2.4$. We derive best-fit linear relations between the differential nebular-stellar reddening and the SED-derived star formation rate (SFR) and stellar mass, finding statistically significant relations for both quantities. We use our spatially-resolved measurements to derive an empirical calibration between the resolved differential reddening, and the SFR surface density. These will enable crucial dust attenuation corrections for spatially-resolved science at higher redshifts where the Balmer lines are inaccessible, such as with future Roman grism observations.

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Testing SALT Approximations with Numerical Radiative Transfer Code. II. Thermal and Microturbulent Line Broadening

Forward models that connect galactic winds to their predicted spectral-line profiles have proved effective for inferring wind properties in controlled settings, but important limitations remain. In particular, many models rely on the Sobolev approximation to solve the radiative transfer equation and neglect line broadening caused by thermal and turbulent motions within the wind. In the first paper of this series, we demonstrated that neglecting this broadening in Semi-Analytical Line Transfer (SALT) models can bias the recovery of fundamental wind properties from mock observations. Here, we extend the SALT framework to incorporate this motion by solving the radiative transfer equation in the single-scattering limit. We treat re-emission using an escape-probability approach similar to that adopted under the Sobolev approximation, while allowing photons to escape from resonance regions of finite thickness. We validate the model and investigate parameter degeneracies by fitting mock spectra generated with Monte Carlo radiative transfer simulations assuming identical outflow configurations. We identify a degeneracy between the Doppler-broadening parameter and the radial density and velocity profiles: shallower density and velocity gradients can mimic the effects of greater velocity dispersion. Nevertheless, integrated quantities are well recovered. Over the range $13 \leq \log(N_{\mathrm{Si}^+}/\mathrm{cm}^{-2}) \leq 18$, the recovered ionic column densities have a scatter of 0.26 dex and are systematically overestimated by 0.22 dex. Mass-outflow rates evaluated at the terminal wind radius have a scatter of 0.88 dex and are systematically overestimated by 0.51 dex. These results represent substantial improvements over previous versions of the model.

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On the importance of the IGM/CGM enrichment in determining chemical abundances during the first 600 Myr

JWST observations show that galaxies at $z>8$ exhibit a wide range of carbon-to-oxygen (C/O) ratios at fixed metallicity and systematically elevated nitrogen-to-oxygen (N/O) ratios compared to local galaxies. Proposed explanations include finely tuned star-formation histories (SFHs), differential or pristine inflows, top- or bottom-heavy initial mass functions, or enrichment from Wolf-Rayet stars, supermassive stars (SMSs), or Population III stars. The observed abundances reflect both in situ production tied to the SFHs and earlier pre-enrichment of the intergalactic and circumgalactic medium (IGM/CGM), which supply the gas inflow that fuels star formation. At such early epochs, SFHs are necessarily brief, and sustained star formation requires inflows to dominate over outflows, making the chemical state of the IGM/CGM especially important. We develop a chemical evolution model that incorporates (1) enrichment of the IGM/CGM by multiple sources and (2) the observed SFHs of high-redshift galaxies. Applying this model to eight galaxies at $z>8$, we find that only specific pre-enrichment scenarios reproduce their observed abundance ratios. For example, the low C/O and high N/O ratios measured in GN-z11 and CEERS-1019 require an IGM/CGM enriched by SMSs and pre-enriched to an oxygen metallicity of $\sim10^{-5}$ of the solar value. We also find that the log(N/O) vs. 12 + log(O/H) plane provides more stringent constraints on enrichment pathways than the log(C/O) vs. 12 + log(O/H) plane. Overall, our results highlight the crucial role of IGM/CGM chemical composition in chemical evolution models at $z>8$ and underscore the significant influence of SMSs on early carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen abundances.

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Dust in the Average Galaxy: Attenuation, Emission, and Opacity from $0<z<7$

We present constraints on the dust emission and attenuation properties of galaxies across 0 10^{10.5}M_\odot$. We derive empirical relationships for the effective attenuation, dust temperature, fraction of star formation that is unobscured, and dust-to-stellar mass ratio as functions of redshift and stellar mass. We separate the first order effect of star/dust geometry from dust grain properties by combining constraints on the IR SED, UV SED, and dust mass surface density. Importantly, we measure over an order of magnitude decrease in $κ_{UV}/κ_{FIR}$--the ratio of dust mass absorption coefficients in the UV at 1600Å and FIR at 500$μ$m--from z~0 to z~7. A depressed $κ_{UV}/κ_{FIR}$ is consistent with a deficit of small dust grains, possibly attributable to the intense radiation fields of high-$z$ star formation; indeed, we find a redshift-invariant inverse relationship between $κ_{UV}/κ_{FIR}$ and $Σ_{SFR}$. Most evolution in the dust-to-stellar ratio is at $z<1$, the product of mild downward evolution in the dust-to-gas ratio combined with steep evolution in the gas-to-stellar ratio. The significant evolution and dynamic range of $κ_{UV}/κ_{FIR}$ and prevailing disconnect between the UV/optical and FIR regimes emphasize that direct dust constraints are irreplaceable for the majority of star-forming galaxies at z<7, not just the most extreme star-formers.

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CLASSY. XV. Kinematics and Spatial Distributions of Outflows in Local Highly Star-Forming Galaxies

Star-forming galaxies drive massive outflows that play an important role in galaxy evolution by regulating feedback and influencing the dynamics of surrounding media. Measuring galactic outflow rates is essential for quantifying feedback efficiency and the amount of mass, momentum, and energy deposited into the circumgalactic medium. In this paper, we examine 17 galactic outflows from the CLASSY survey with radiative transfer modeling of UV absorption lines presented in M. Huberty et al. (2024), to study their spatial distributions and kinematic properties. We study the SiII, SiIII, and SiIV ionization states that trace the cool and warm phases of the outflows and find that SiII traced winds generally behave differently than the warmer SiIII and SiIV traced winds. We derive the mass, momentum, and energy loading factors, which we find scale inversely proportional to stellar mass. We find that our measurements of the mass and momentum loading factors are in agreement with the hydrodynamic FIRE-2 simulations. We model the velocity profiles of the winds, with profiles reaching a maximum velocity of 620 km/s on average, in agreement with hydrodynamic simulations from CGOLS. We also investigate the relationship between outflow properties and the age of the stellar population from SED fitting. We find that outflows associated with young star forming regions are more likely to have a column density dominated by cooler gas and have mass outflow rates which decrease with radius.

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BEACON: JWST NIRCam Pure-parallel Imaging Survey. III. Constraints on the UV LF and the Clustering of z~7-14 Galaxies

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has extended the frontier of galaxy detection to redshifts z>11, finding a high abundance of UV-bright sources that challenge theoretical models. However, most current results come from just a few fields, introducing uncertainties due to cosmic variance. Here, we constrain z~7-14 UV luminosity functions (LFs) over ~400 sq. arcmin across 36 independent sightlines from DR2 of BEACON, a JWST pure-parallel NIRCam multi-band imaging survey. We identify 164 7 13 do not rule out a possible excess. We measure significant clustering of bright (Muv<-20.5) galaxies at 7<z<10. Fields hosting such sources are approximately three times more likely to be overdense relative to the full survey, implying that UV-bright galaxies preferentially reside in the most massive halos at these redshifts. Comparing with semi-numerical simulations, we estimate that Muv < -20.5 galaxies inhabit halos ~0.8 dex less massive at z~11 than at z~8, consistent with a shift to higher star formation rates. However, their observed clustering exceeds predictions from pre-JWST luminosity-halo mass relations, suggesting these sources reside in more massive halos than previously modelled and/or multiple halo occupation.

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Supernovae Driven Winds Impede Lyman Continuum Escape from Dwarf Galaxies in First 10 Myr

Observations suggest that UV-bright, compact star-forming galaxies produce enough ionizing (Lyman continuum; LyC) photons to reionize the Universe. Yet, the efficiency of LyC escape and the roles of radiation, stellar winds, and supernovae remain uncertain. Using medium-resolution spectra of six nearly identical local star-forming galaxies, we directly trace, for the first time, the evolution of a multiphase wind through individual spectral lines alongside measurements of the LyC escape fraction. We find that LyC escape peaks early, during a period dominated by intense radiation and stellar winds but lacking a fast galactic wind. As the starbursts age, supernovae drive and accelerate the wind, progressively suppressing LyC escape. These results highlight the need for cosmological simulations to incorporate early feedback as a key driver of reionization.

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Spatially resolved gas-phase metallicity at z~2-3 with JWST/NIRISS

Spatially resolved gas-phase metallicity maps are a crucial element in understanding the chemical evolution of galaxies. We present spatially resolved metallicity maps obtained from NIRISS/WFSS observations. This is the first such work presenting multiple individual galaxies. We investigate the source of ionisation, metallicity and its relation to star-formation in a spatially-resolved sense for a sample of eight galaxies -- four from JWST-PASSAGE and four from GLASS-JWST ERS. All but one galaxy are in the redshift range $1.9 \leq z \leq 2$, the outlier being at $z = 3.1$. Our sample covers a range of $8.0 <$ \logM $< 9.5$ in stellar mass, $0.2 <$ $\log{\rm{(SFR}}$/\Msunpyr) $< 1.1$ in star-formation rate (SFR) and $7.8 <$ \logOH $< 9.0$ in global metallicity. As a solution to the challenge of SF-AGN demarcation in absence of resolved \halpha, we present a new SF-demarcation line in the \textit{OHNO} parameter space based on MAPPINGS v5.1 publicly available \hii region model grids. We present the mass-metallicity gradient relation for our sample, which showed no clear trend with stellar mass, perhaps hinting at the fact that the high-$z$ galaxies have not yet started their accretion dominated phase. By interpreting the correlation between spatially resolved metallicity and SFR maps as a proxy for effective timescales of metal-transport in galaxies, we find a weak trend such that this timescale increases with stellar mass, implying a more effective feedback in lower mass galaxies.

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The short and long of iPhoton science for a boosted Hubble

Boosting the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) will provide unique opportunities to carry out precursor science for the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). Chief among them are science cases for determining the properties of star forming galaxies that contribute to creating and sustaining the universe in a mostly ionized state. The farUV and nearUV spectroscopic capabilities of the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) are unique and unlikely to be replicated in the near future. Here we describe the benefits of a deep panchromatic spectroscopic effort to answer questions concerning the shape of the rest frame ionizing radiation escaping from star forming galaxies at modest redshift, capture crucial missing spectral regions, and explore whether their star formation histories are truly similar to the LyC leakers responsible for initiating and later sustaining the mostly-ionized-state of the universe. An observing program emphasizing multi-orbit observations, unencumbered by HST orbit competition and freely accessible to the wider ionizing photon (iPhoton) community, will catalyze crowd-sourced answers to these questions and offer a lower operating cost price point.

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HST's Deep Blue: extremely deep UV imaging to reveal the contributors to reionization

Understanding galaxy evolution in the epoch of reionization and the effect these galaxies had on the transformation of the intergalactic medium from neutral to ionized, is a key goal of modern astrophsyics, and is central to both HST's and JWST's missions. The biggest remaining uncertainty is the escape fraction of ionizing photons from galaxies. Quantifying and understanding this at redshifts close to reionization is an objective only achievable through observations with HST, in particular, deep imaging with the WFC3/UVIS instrument to detect ionizing photons from galaxies at 2<z<4. A survey across 20 fields with supporting spectroscopy would both build up a sample similar to the state of the art at low redshift, and also overcome the uncertainty stemming from the unknown transmission of ionizing photons through the intergalactic medium. Such a program would establish the tracers of ionizing photon escape to use within the epoch of reionization and reconcile the growth of the first galaxies with the progression and topology of reionization.

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MXDFz4.4: A LyC emitter 250Myr after the epoch of reionization and a first test of Ly-alpha morphology as a tracer of LyC escape at high redshift

Assessing the contribution of ionizing sources to cosmic reionization is a central goal of extragalactic astrophysics. Understanding and quantifying ionizing escape remains challenging near the epoch of reionization. We present the highest-redshift Lyman continuum (LyC) emitter detected to date, MXDFz4.4 at z=4.442 in the MUSE eXtremely Deep Field, observed only ~0.25Gyr after the end of reionization. A high confidence Ly-alpha line confirms the redshift. LyC flux is detected at 5.3sigma in the F435W filter with a flux of 4.2+/-0.8nJy, corresponding to a flux measurement at 5.2sigma. After correcting for the intrinsic production of LyC photons and the IGM opacity at z=4.44, we derive high escape fractions, ranging from 50 - 100%. We apply established low-redshift tracers of LyC escape and, for the first time at high redshift, promising Ly-alpha morphological tracers such as the halo fraction. SED fitting indicates the presence of a recent burst of star formation; we explore its impact on the production and escape of ionizing photons. Ly-alpha-based tracers of LyC escape reveal a complex scenario in which the recent burst strong influences LyC production and escape, combined with a more evolved stellar population. This interpretation is supported by UV diagnostics, including the star formation rate surface density and sSFR. Our results provide cautious support for the Ly-alpha halo fraction as a LyC escape tracer at high redshift. Considering the burst-driven enhancement in LyC production and escape, we conclude that stochastic star formation in the early Universe likely plays a significant role in the contribution of galaxies to cosmic reionization.

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Validating z > 7.5 Lyman Break Galaxy candidates in the COSMOS field with JWST/PASSAGE

We analyze spectroscopy from one NIRISS pointing in the JWST-PASSAGE program for seven candidate $z \gtrsim 7.5$ photometrically-selected COSMOS-Web sources. We spectroscopically confirm one out of seven sources as a Lyman break galaxy (LBG) at $z=7.962^{+0.003}_{-0.006}$, with $m_{F150W} = 25.9$ (AB). The remaining sources are too faint in the continuum (i.e., $m_{F150W} \gtrsim 26$ AB) to provide a redshift measurement from the Lyman break, and do not show emission lines in their spectra. Although this study contains only one spectroscopically confirmed source, the confirmation of a luminous $z \sim 8$ galaxy within this $\sim4.8$ arcmin$^2$ field implies a surface density of $\sim 0.21^{+0.59}_{-0.17}$ arcmin$^{-2}$, $\approx 10\times$ higher than inferred from wide-area photometric surveys, suggesting a potential overdensity at $z\sim8$ in the COSMOS field.

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Specific Star Formation Rate Enhancement across the Galaxy Merger Sequence: Insights from Citizen Science Classifications

We present an analysis of specific star formation rates (sSFR) across the galaxy merger sequence using visual classifications from the Zooniverse citizen science project "Cosmic Disco: Characterizing Galaxy Collisions". Our sample comprises 4884 galaxy systems pre-selected as merger candidates from SDSS DR17 ($0.01 < z < 0.05$, $M_* > 10^{8.5}M_\odot$) using Zoobot, of which 3690 were classified as mergers spanning pre-interaction through post-coalescence stages by citizen scientist volunteers. We find a weak but statistically significant positive correlation between $\log(\mathrm{sSFR})$ and visual merger stage ($r = 0.161$, $p = 7.23 \times 10^{-23}$), with a best-fit relation $\log\left(sSFR\right)=(0.148\pm0.015)\, S_{\rm Merg}-(1.865\pm0.038)$. The large RMS scatter (0.661 dex) reflects visual merger stages capturing wide merger timescales, and our results corroborate previous findings of increasing SFR enhancement with merger progression. This work shows that citizen science is a viable complement to automated and pair-based approaches to evaluate timescales for galaxies across the merger sequence.

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Resolving the Unresolved Galactic Winds in Multi-phase Models. I. Methodology and Application

Galactic winds shape galaxy evolution; however, the outflowing gas is complex: it consists of multiple ionization phases, and its properties vary spatially. Therefore, methods that combine high-fidelity observations with state-of-the-art galactic-wind models are limited. Here we investigate methods for fitting the column density profiles derived from high-quality outflow observations with the multiphase, multiscale wind model from Fielding & Bryan 2022. We identify three key outflow parameters: the initial hot-phase mass-loading factor ($η_\text{ M,hot,0}$), the initial cool-phase mass-loading factor ($η_\text{ M,cool,0}$), and the initial cool-cloud mass. We obtain good fits for most galaxies, with tight constraints on $η_\text{ M,cool,0}$ and moderate constraints on the other two parameters. We find the inferred $η_\text{ M,cool,0}$ and $η_\text{ M,hot,0}$ are mostly of order unity, with significant scatter. The constraints on $η_\text{ M,hot,0}$ suggest that the interaction between the cool and hot phases allows us to indirectly constrain the properties of the hot wind from cool-outflow observations. The model also predicts various radial trends. First, for all galaxies, the cool-phase outflow velocity increases between $1-2$ times of the half-light radius, then reaches a plateau. Second, most galaxies exhibit increasing $η_\text{ M,cool}$ and decreasing $η_\text{ M,hot}$ with radius, with a few showing the reverse trends. These results are effective, model-conditional constraints, and are consistent with other recent multiphase simulations and observations. This highlights that the velocity-radius mapping encoded in UV absorption profiles enables recovery of outflow spatial structures from spatially integrated spectra. Our method paves the way for future broad parameter studies and guides updates of outflow simulations in future work.

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The NIRISS PASSAGE Spectroscopic Redshift Catalog in COSMOS

We present the Parallel Application of Slitless Spectroscopy to Analyze Galaxy Evolution (PASSAGE) spectroscopic redshift catalog in the COSMOS field. PASSAGE is a JWST Cycle 1 Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) wide-field slitless spectroscopy (WFSS) pure-parallel survey, obtaining near-infrared spectra of thousands of extragalactic sources. 15 out of 63 PASSAGE fields fall within the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) COSMOS footprint, of which 11 overlap with COSMOS-Web, a JWST treasury survey providing additional space-based photometry. We present our custom line-finding algorithm and visual inspection effort used to identify emission lines and derive the spectroscopic redshifts for line-emitting sources in PASSAGE. The line-finding algorithm identifies between ~200 and 950 line-emitting candidates per field, of which typically 47% were identified as true emission lines post visual inspection. We identify 2183 emission line sources at 0.08 5), multi-line emitting sources. This agreement weakens for PASSAGE single-line emitters with ambiguous identities. These single-line emitters are likely mis-identified around 18% of the time based on comparisons to photometric redshifts. We derive stellar masses using PASSAGE photometry and spectroscopic redshifts, in broad agreement with existing COSMOS-Web stellar masses, but with some discrepancy driven by redshift disagreements. We publicly release this spectroscopic redshift catalog, which will enable community-led science in prime extragalactic fields and serve as a crucial dataset for validating Euclid and Roman spectroscopy.

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A scalable Bayesian framework for galaxy emission line detection and redshift estimation

Estimating galaxy redshifts is crucial for constraining key physical quantities like those in the equation of state of dark energy. Modern telescopes such as the James Webb Space Telescope, the Euclid Space Telescope, and the NASA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope are producing massive amounts of spectroscopic data that enable precise redshift estimation. However, a galaxy's redshift can be estimated only when emission lines are present in the observed spectrum, which is unknown a priori. A novel Bayesian approach to estimating redshift and simultaneously testing for the presence of emission lines is developed. Although modern spectroscopic surveys involve millions of spectra and give rise to highly multimodal posterior distributions, the proposed framework remains computationally efficient, admitting a parallelizable implementation suitable for large-scale inference.

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Spatio-Spectroscopic Representation Learning using Unsupervised Convolutional Long-Short Term Memory Networks

Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) surveys offer a unique new landscape in which to learn in both spatial and spectroscopic dimensions and could help uncover previously unknown insights into galaxy evolution. In this work, we demonstrate a new unsupervised deep learning framework using Convolutional Long-Short Term Memory Network Autoencoders to encode generalized feature representations across both spatial and spectroscopic dimensions spanning $19$ optical emission lines (3800A $< λ<$ 8000A) among a sample of $\sim 9000$ galaxies from the MaNGA IFS survey. As a demonstrative exercise, we assess our model on a sample of $290$ Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and highlight scientifically interesting characteristics of some highly anomalous AGN.

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The Ly$α$ and Continuum Origins Survey. III. Investigating the Link between Galaxy Morphology, Merger Properties and LyC Escape

Characterizing the mechanisms and galaxy properties conducive to the emission and escape of ionizing (LyC) emission is necessary to accurately model the Epoch of Reionization, and identify the sources that powered it. The Ly$α$ and Continuum Origins Survey (LaCOS) is the first program to obtain uniform, multi-wavelength subkiloparsec imaging for a large sample (42) of galaxies observed in LyC and enable statistically robust studies between LyC and resolved galaxy properties. Here, we characterize the morphology and galaxy merger properties of LaCOS galaxies and investigate their connection with the escape fraction of LyC emission $f_{esc}^{LyC}$. We find strong anticorrelations between $f_{esc}^{LyC}$ and size ($r_{20}$, $r_{50}$, and $r_{80}$) measured in filters containing emission from star-forming regions, and with the asymmetry and clumpiness in F150LP, the bluest filter in our dataset, tracing UV continuum and Ly$α$. We find that $\geq48\%$ of LaCOS galaxies, and $\geq41\%$ of LaCOS LyC-emitters are visually classified as galaxy mergers. Galaxies robustly identified as mergers in LaCOS are at advanced stages of interaction, close to coalescence. The $f_{esc}^{LyC}$ properties of robust mergers and low-probability mergers cannot be differentiated statistically, and we only find significant difference between the two populations in terms of their of their sizes and LyC luminosity: robust mergers having larger values. We conclude that (i) $f_{esc}^{LyC}$ tends to be larger in galaxies with a small number of compact, centrally-located, UV-emitting star-forming regions, (ii) at advanced stages of interaction represent a sizable fraction of LyC-emitting samples at $z\sim0.3$, $z\sim0$, and (iii) mergers can facilitate the escape of LyC photons from galaxies.

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