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  • The MUSE Extremely Deep Fie...
    Bacon, R.; Mary, D.; Garel, T.; Blaizot, J.; Maseda, M.; Schaye, J.; Wisotzki, L.; Conseil, S.; Brinchmann, J.; Leclercq, F.; Abril-Melgarejo, V.; Boogaard, L.; Bouché, N. F.; Contini, T.; Feltre, A.; Guiderdoni, B.; Herenz, C.; Kollatschny, W.; Kusakabe, H.; Matthee, J.; Michel-Dansac, L.; Nanayakkara, T.; Richard, J.; Roth, M.; Schmidt, K. B.; Steinmetz, M.; Tresse, L.; Urrutia, T.; Verhamme, A.; Weilbacher, P. M.; Zabl, J.; Zoutendijk, S. L.

    Astronomy & astrophysics, 03/2021, Letnik: 647
    Journal Article

    We report the discovery of diffuse extended Ly α emission from redshift 3.1 to 4.5, tracing cosmic web filaments on scales of 2.5−4 cMpc. These structures have been observed in overdensities of Ly α emitters in the MUSE Extremely Deep Field, a 140 h deep MUSE observation located in the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field. Among the 22 overdense regions identified, five are likely to harbor very extended Ly α emission at high significance with an average surface brightness of 5 × 10 −20 erg s −1 cm −2 arcsec −2 . Remarkably, 70% of the total Ly α luminosity from these filaments comes from beyond the circumgalactic medium of any identified Ly α emitter. Fluorescent Ly α emission powered by the cosmic UV background can only account for less than 34% of this emission at z ≈ 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 α emission of a large population of ultra low-luminosity Ly α emitters (< 10 40 erg s −1 ), provided that the faint end of the Ly α luminosity function is steep ( α ⪅ −1.8), it extends down to luminosities lower than 10 38 − 10 37 erg s −1 , and the clustering of these Ly α emitters is significant (filling factor < 1/6). If these Ly α emitters are powered by star formation, then this implies their luminosity function needs to extend down to star formation rates < 10 −4 M ⊙ yr −1 . These observations provide the first detection of the cosmic web in Ly α emission in typical filamentary environments and the first observational clue indicating the existence of a large population of ultra low-luminosity Ly α emitters at high redshift.