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Astraeus VIII: A new framework for Lyman-$\alpha$ emitters applied to different reionisation scenarios

, , , , , and .
(2022)cite arxiv:2209.14592Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures, submitted to MNRAS; comments welcome.

Abstract

We use the astraeus framework to investigate how the visibility and spatial distribution of Lyman-$\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$) emitters (LAEs) during reionisation is sensitive to a halo mass-dependent fraction of ionising radiation escaping from the galactic environment ($f_esc$) and the ionisation topology. To this end, we consider the two physically plausible bracketing scenarios of $f_esc$ increasing and decreasing with rising halo mass. We derive the corresponding observed Ly$\alpha$ luminosities of galaxies for three different analytic Ly$\alpha$ line profiles and associated Ly$\alpha$ escape fraction ($f_esc^Ly\alpha$) models: importantly, we introduce two novel analytic Ly$\alpha$ line profile models that describe the surrounding interstellar medium (ISM) as outflowing dusty gas clumps. They are based on parameterising results from radiative transfer simulations, with one of them relating $f_esc^Ly\alpha$ to $f_esc$ by assuming the ISM of being interspersed with low-density tunnels. Our key findings are: (i) for outflowing clumps, the Ly$\alpha$ line profile develops from a central to double peak profile as a galaxy's halo mass increases; (ii) LAEs are galaxies with $M_h\gtrsim10^10M_ødot$ located in overdense and highly ionised regions; (iii) for this reason, the spatial distribution of LAEs is primarily sensitive to the global ionisation fraction and only weakly in second-order to the ionisation topology or a halo mass-dependent $f_esc$; (iv) furthermore, as the observed Ly$\alpha$ luminosity functions reflect the Ly$\alpha$ emission from more massive galaxies, there is a degeneracy between the $f_esc$-dependent intrinsic Ly$\alpha$ luminosity and the Ly$\alpha$ attenuation by dust in the ISM if $f_esc$ does not exceed $\sim50\%$.

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