Journal article
The Lyman Alpha Reference Sample. X. Predicting Ly alpha Output from Star-forming Galaxies Using Multivariate Regression
The Astrophysical journal, Vol.892(1), p.48
03/20/2020
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab7a91
Abstract
Understanding the production and escape of Ly alpha radiation from star-forming galaxies is a long-standing problem in astrophysics. The ability to predict the Ly alpha luminosity of galaxies would open up new ways of exploring the epoch of reionization (EOR) and estimating Ly alpha emission from galaxies in cosmological simulations where radiative transfer calculations cannot be done. We apply multivariate regression methods to the Lyman Alpha Reference Sample data set to obtain a relation between the galaxy properties and the emitted Ly alpha. The derived relation predicts the Ly alpha luminosity of our galaxy sample to good accuracy, regardless of whether we consider only direct observables (rms dispersion around the relation of similar to 0.19 dex) or derived physical quantities (rms similar to 0.27 dex). We confirm the predictive ability on a separate sample of compact star-forming galaxies and find that the prediction works well, but that aperture effects on measured Ly alpha luminosity may be important, depending on the redshift of the galaxy. We apply statistical feature selection techniques to determine an order of importance of the variables in our data set, enabling future observations to be optimized for predictive ability. When using physical variables, we are able to determine that the most important predictive parameters are, in order, star formation rate, dust extinction, compactness, and the gas covering fraction. We discuss the application of our results in terms of studying the EOR and intensity mapping experiments.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- The Lyman Alpha Reference Sample. X. Predicting Ly alpha Output from Star-forming Galaxies Using Multivariate Regression
- Creators
- Axel Runnholm - AlbaNovaMatthew Hayes - AlbaNovaJens Melinder - AlbaNovaEmil Rivera-Thorsen - Stockholm UniversityGoran Ostlin - Stockholm UniversityJohn Cannon - Macalester CollegeDaniel Kunth - Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- The Astrophysical journal, Vol.892(1), p.48
- Publisher
- IOP Publishing Ltd
- DOI
- 10.3847/1538-4357/ab7a91
- ISSN
- 0004-637X
- eISSN
- 1538-4357
- Number of pages
- 18
- Grant note
- 131425 / Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES)/Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Swedish National Space Board (SNSB) Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsradet); Swedish Research Council
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 03/20/2020
- Academic Unit
- Physics and Astronomy
- Record Identifier
- 9984627315702771
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