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We present new spectroscopic observations of Ly α (Ly α) Blob 2 (z ∼ 3.1). We observed extended Ly α emission in three distinct regions, where the highest Ly α surface brightness (SB) centre is far away from the known continuum sources. We searched through the MOSFIRE slits that cover the high Ly α SB regions, but were unable to detect any significant nebular emission near the highest SB centre. We further mapped the flux ratio of the blue peak to the red peak and found it is anticorrelated with Ly α SB with a power-law index of ∼ –0.4. We used radiative transfer models with both multiphase, clumpy, and shell geometries and successfully reproduced the diverse Ly α morphologies. We found that most spectra suggest outflow-dominated kinematics, while 4/15 spectra imply inflows. A significant correlation exists between parameter pairs, and the multiphase, clumpy model may alleviate previously reported discrepancies. We also modelled Ly α spectra at different positions simultaneously and found that the variation of the inferred clump outflow velocities can be approximately explained by line-of-sight projection effects. Our results support the ‘central powering  + scattering’ scenario, i.e. the Ly α photons are generated by a central powering source and then scatter with outflowing, multiphase H  i gas whilemore »propagating outwards. The infalling of cool gas near the blob outskirts shapes the observed blue-dominated Ly α profiles, but its energy contribution to the total Ly α luminosity is less than 10 per cent, i.e. minor compared to the photoionization by star-forming galaxies and/or AGNs.

The Baldwin, Philips, & Terlevich diagram of [Oiii]/Hβversus [Nii]/Hα(hereafter N2-BPT) has long been used as a tool for classifying galaxies based on the dominant source of ionizing radiation. Recent observations have demonstrated that galaxies atz∼ 2 reside offset from local galaxies in the N2-BPT space. In this paper, we conduct a series of controlled numerical experiments to understand the potential physical processes driving this offset. We model nebular line emission in a large sample of galaxies, taken from thesimbacosmological hydrodynamic galaxy formation simulation, using thecloudyphotoionization code to compute the nebular line luminosities from Hiiregions. We find that the observed shift toward higher [Oiii]/Hβand [Nii]/Hαvalues at high redshift arises from sample selection: when we consider only the most massive galaxiesM_*∼ 10^10–11M_⊙, the offset naturally appears, due to their high metallicities. We predict that deeper observations that probe lower-mass galaxies will reveal galaxies that lie on a locus comparable toz∼ 0 observations. Even when accounting for samples-selection effects, we find that there is a subtle mismatch between simulations and observations. To resolve this discrepancy, we investigate the impact of varying ionization parameters, Hiiregion densities, gas-phase abundance patterns, and increasing radiation field hardness on N2-BPT diagrams. We find that either decreasing themore »ionization parameter or increasing the N/O ratio of galaxies at fixed O/H can move galaxies along a self-similar arc in N2-BPT space that is occupied by high-redshift galaxies.

We investigate the relationship between dust attenuation and stellar mass (M_*) in star-forming galaxies over cosmic time. For this analysis, we compare measurements from the MOSFIRE Deep Evolution Field survey atz∼ 2.3 and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) atz∼ 0, augmenting the latter optical data set with both UV Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and mid-infrared Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) photometry from the GALEX-SDSS-WISE Catalog. We quantify dust attenuation using both spectroscopic measurements of Hαand Hβemission lines, and photometric measurements of the rest-UV stellar continuum. The Hα/Hβratio is used to determine the magnitude of attenuation at the wavelength of Hα,A_Hα. Rest-UV colors and spectral energy distribution fitting are used to estimateA₁₆₀₀, the magnitude of attenuation at a rest wavelength of 1600 Å. As in previous work, we find a lack of significant evolution in the relation between dust attenuation andM_*over the redshift rangez∼ 0 toz∼ 2.3. Folding in the latest estimates of the evolution ofM_dust, (M_dust/M_gas), and gas surface density at fixedM_*, we find that the expectedM_dustand dust mass surface density are both significantly higher atz∼ 2.3 than atz∼ 0. These differences appear at odds with the lack of evolution in dust attenuation. To explain the striking constancymore »in attenuation versusM_*, it is essential to determine the relationship between metallicity and (M_dust/M_gas), the dust mass absorption coefficient and dust geometry, and the evolution of these relations and quantities fromz∼ 0 toz∼ 2.3.

The combination of the MOSDEF and KBSS-MOSFIRE surveys represents the largest joint investment of Keck/MOSFIRE time to date, with ∼3000 galaxies at 1.4 ≲ z ≲ 3.8, roughly half of which are at z ∼ 2. MOSDEF is photometric- and spectroscopic-redshift selected with a rest-optical magnitude limit, while KBSS-MOSFIRE is primarily selected based on rest-UV colours and a rest-UV magnitude limit. Analysing both surveys in a uniform manner with consistent spectral-energy-distribution (SED) models, we find that the MOSDEF z ∼ 2 targeted sample has higher median M* and redder rest U−V colour than the KBSS-MOSFIRE z ∼ 2 targeted sample, and smaller median SED-based SFR and sSFR (SFR(SED) and sSFR(SED)). Specifically, MOSDEF targeted a larger population of red galaxies with U−V and V−J ≥1.25, while KBSS-MOSFIRE contains more young galaxies with intense star formation. Despite these differences in the z ∼ 2 targeted samples, the subsets of the surveys with multiple emission lines detected and analysed in previous work are much more similar. All median host-galaxy properties with the exception of stellar population age – i.e. M*, SFR(SED), sSFR(SED), AV, and UVJ colours – agree within the uncertainties. Additionally, when uniform emission-line fitting and stellar Balmer absorption correction techniquesmore »are applied, there is no significant offset between both samples in the [O iii]λ5008/H β versus [N ii]λ6585/H α diagnostic diagram, in contrast to previously reported discrepancies. We can now combine the MOSDEF and KBSS-MOSFIRE surveys to form the largest z ∼ 2 sample with moderate-resolution rest-optical spectra and construct the fundamental scaling relations of star-forming galaxies during this important epoch.