The Lyman Continuum Escape Fraction of Star-forming Galaxies at 2.4 ≲ z ≲ 3.0 from UVCANDELS

Authors

• Xin Wang, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
• Harry I. Teplitz, Infrared Processing & Analysis Center
• Brent M. Smith, Arizona State University, Tempe
• Rogier A. Windhorst, Arizona State University, Tempe
• Marc Rafelski, Space Telescope Science Institute
• Vihang Mehta, Infrared Processing & Analysis Center
• Anahita Alavi, Infrared Processing & Analysis Center
• Zhiyuan Ji, University of Massachusetts Amherst
• Gabriel Brammer, Cosmic Dawn Center
• James Colbert, Infrared Processing & Analysis Center
• Norman Grogin, Space Telescope Science Institute
• Nimish P. Hathi, Space Telescope Science Institute
• Anton M. Koekemoer, Space Telescope Science Institute
• Laura Prichard, Space Telescope Science Institute
• Claudia Scarlata, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
• Ben Sunnquist, Space Telescope Science Institute
• Pablo Arrabal Haro, NOIRLab
• Christopher Conselice, University of Nottingham
• Eric Gawiser, Rutgers University–New Brunswick
• Yicheng Guo, University of Missouri
• Matthew Hayes, Oskar Klein Centre

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Astrophysical Journal

Department

Physics

ISSN

15384357

Volume

980

Issue

1

DOI

10.3847/1538-4357/ada4ab

First Page

1

Last Page

22

Publication Date

2-5-2025

Abstract

The UltraViolet Imaging of the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey Fields (UVCANDELS) survey is a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Cycle-26 Treasury Program, allocated in total 164 orbits of primary Wide-Field Camera 3 Ultraviolet and VISible light F275W imaging with coordinated parallel Advanced Camera for Surveys F435W imaging, on four of the five premier extragalactic survey fields: GOODS-N, GOODS-S, EGS, and COSMOS. We introduce this survey by presenting a comprehensive analysis of the absolute escape fraction ( f esc abs ) of Lyman continuum radiation through stacking the UV images of a population of star-forming galaxies with secure redshifts at 2.4 ≤ z ≤ 3.0. Our stacking benefits from the catalogs of high-quality spectroscopic redshifts compiled from archival ground-based data and HST slitless spectroscopy, carefully vetted by dedicated visual inspection efforts. We develop a robust stacking method to apply to 10 samples of in total 56 galaxies, and perform detailed Monte Carlo simulations of the intergalactic medium (IGM) attenuation, to take into account the sample variance of the mean IGM transmission when measuring f esc abs . The full stack at z ≈ 2.44 from 28 galaxies places a stringent 1σ upper limit of f esc abs ≲ 5 % , whereas the full stack at z ≈ 2.72 of an equal number of galaxies gives an upper limit of f esc abs ≲ 26 % at 1σ confidence level. These new F275W and F435W imaging mosaics from UVCANDELS have been made publicly available on the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Wang, Xin; Teplitz, Harry I.; Smith, Brent M.; Windhorst, Rogier A.; Rafelski, Marc; Mehta, Vihang; Alavi, Anahita; Ji, Zhiyuan; Brammer, Gabriel; Colbert, James; Grogin, Norman; Hathi, Nimish P.; Koekemoer, Anton M.; Prichard, Laura; Scarlata, Claudia; Sunnquist, Ben; Arrabal Haro, Pablo; Conselice, Christopher; Gawiser, Eric; Guo, Yicheng; and Hayes, Matthew, "The Lyman Continuum Escape Fraction of Star-forming Galaxies at 2.4 ≲ z ≲ 3.0 from UVCANDELS" (2025). Pacific Faculty Work. 107.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/all-faculty/107