Three Lyman-α-emitting filaments converging to a massive galaxy group at z = 2.91: discussing the case for cold gas infall

Daddi, E.; Valentino, F.; Rich, R.M.; Neill, J.D.; Gronke, M.; O’Sullivan, D.; Elbaz, D.; Bournaud, F.; Finoguenov, A.; Marchal, A.; Delvecchio, I.; Jin, S.; Liu, D.; Strazzullo, V.; Calabro, A.; Coogan, R.; D’Eugenio, C.; Gobat, R.; Kalita, B.S.; Laursen, P.; Martin, D.C.; Puglisi, A.; Schinnerer, E.; Wang, T.

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202038700

Three Lyman-α-emitting filaments converging to a massive galaxy group at z = 2.91: discussing the case for cold gas infall

Daddi, E.; Valentino, F.; Rich, R.M.; Neill, J.D.; Gronke, M.; O’Sullivan, D.; Elbaz, D.; Bournaud, F.; Finoguenov, A.; Marchal, A.; Delvecchio, I.; Jin, S.; Liu, D.; Strazzullo, V.; Calabro, A.; Coogan, R.; D’Eugenio, C.; Gobat, R.; Kalita, B.S.; Laursen, P.; Martin, D.C.; Puglisi, A.; Schinnerer, E.; Wang, T.

Authors

E. Daddi

F. Valentino

R.M. Rich

J.D. Neill

M. Gronke

D. O’Sullivan

D. Elbaz

F. Bournaud

A. Finoguenov

A. Marchal

I. Delvecchio

S. Jin

D. Liu

V. Strazzullo

A. Calabro

R. Coogan

C. D’Eugenio

R. Gobat

B.S. Kalita

P. Laursen

D.C. Martin

Dr Annagrazia Puglisi annagrazia.puglisi@durham.ac.uk
Academic Visitor

E. Schinnerer

T. Wang

Abstract

We have discovered a 300 kpc-wide giant Lyman-α (Lyα) nebula centered on the massive galaxy group RO-1001 at z = 2.91 in the Cosmic Evolution Survey field. Keck Cosmic Web Imager observations reveal three cold gas filaments converging into the center of the potential well of its ∼4 × 1013 M⊙ dark matter halo, hosting 1200 M⊙ yr−1 of star formation as probed by Atacama Large Millimeter Array and NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array observations. The nebula morphological and kinematics properties and the prevalence of blueshifted components in the Lyα spectra are consistent with a scenario of gas accretion. The upper limits on active galactic nuclei activity and overall energetics favor gravity as the primary Lyα powering source and infall as the main source of gas flows to the system. Although interpretational difficulties remain, with outflows and likely also photoionization with ensuing recombination still playing a role, this finding provides arguably an ideal environment to quantitatively test models of cold gas accretion and galaxy feeding inside an actively star-forming massive halo at high redshift.

Citation

Daddi, E., Valentino, F., Rich, R., Neill, J., Gronke, M., O’Sullivan, D., …Wang, T. (2021). Three Lyman-α-emitting filaments converging to a massive galaxy group at z = 2.91: discussing the case for cold gas infall. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 649, Article A78. https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202038700

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Feb 22, 2021
Online Publication Date	May 13, 2021
Publication Date	2021-05
Deposit Date	Aug 17, 2021
Publicly Available Date	Aug 17, 2021
Journal	Astronomy and astrophysics.
Print ISSN	0004-6361
Electronic ISSN	1432-0746
Publisher	EDP Sciences
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	649
Article Number	A78
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202038700