Stellar Populations of Lyα-emitting Galaxies in the HETDEX Survey. I. An Analysis of LAEs in the GOODS-N Field

Abstract

Abstract We present the results of a stellar population analysis of 72 Lyα-emitting galaxies (LAEs) in GOODS-N at 1.9 < z < 3.5 spectroscopically identified by the Hobby−Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). We provide a method for connecting emission-line detections from the blind spectroscopic survey to imaging counterparts, a crucial tool needed as HETDEX builds a massive database of ∼1 million Lyα detections. Using photometric data spanning as many as 11 filters covering 0.4 < λ (μm) < 4.5 from the Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope, we study the objects’ global properties and explore which properties impact the strength of Lyα emission. We measure a median stellar mass of 0.8 − 0.5 + 2.9 × 10 9 M ⊙ and conclude that the physical properties of HETDEX spectroscopically selected LAEs are comparable to LAEs selected by previous deep narrowband studies. We find that stellar mass and star formation rate correlate strongly with the Lyα equivalent width. We then use a known sample of z > 7 LAEs to perform a protostudy of predicting Lyα emission from galaxies in the epoch of reionization, finding agreement at the 1σ level between prediction and observation for the majority of strong emitters.