Search for: All records

Abstract The Hobby–Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) is designed to detect and measure the redshifts of more than 1 million Lyαemitting galaxies (LAEs) 1.88 <z< 3.52. In addition to its cosmological measurements, these data enable studies of Lyαspectral profiles and the underlying radiative transfer. Using the roughly half a million LAEs in the HETDEX Data Release 3, we stack various subsets to obtain the typical Lyαprofile for thez∼ 2–3 epoch and to understand their physical properties. We find clear absorption wings around Lyαemission, which extend ∼2000 km s⁻¹both redward and blueward of the central line. Using far-UV spectra of nearby (0.002 <z< 0.182) LAEs in the COS Legacy Archive Spectroscopic Survey treasury and optical/near-IR spectra of 2.8 <z< 6.7 LAEs in the Multi Unit Spectroscopic-Wide survey, we observe absorption profiles in both redshift regimes. Dividing the sample by volume density shows that the troughs increase in higher-density regions. This trend suggests that the depth of the absorption is dependent on the local density of objects near the LAE, a geometry that is similar to damped Lyαsystems. Simple simulations of Lyαradiative transfer can produce similar troughs due to absorption of light from background sources by Higas surrounding the LAEs.