Kavli Affiliate: Michael D. Gladders
| First 5 Authors: T. Emil Rivera-Thorsen, T. Emil Rivera-Thorsen, , ,
| Summary:
At present, the best opportunity for detailed Lyman Continuum escape studies
is in gravitationally lensed galaxies at z >~ 2. Only one such galaxy currently
exists in the literature with sufficient spatial magnification: The Sunburst
Arc at redshift z = 2.37. Here, we present rest-frame optical JWST NIRSpec
integral field observations of the Sunburst Arc that cover a large fraction of
the source plane. From this dataset, we generate precise maps of ISM
kinematics, dust geometry, ionization, and chemical enrichment. We extract a
stacked spectrum of five gravitationally lensed images of the Lyman-Continuum
leaking cluster, as well as an magnification-corrected, integrated spectrum of
most of the galaxy, enabling a direct comparison to other LyC leakers in the
literature. We find that the galaxy rotates but also shows strong, possibly
dominant, signatures of turbulence, which are indicative of recent or ongoing
major interaction. The cluster that leaks ionizing photons shows little
variation in kinematics or dust coverage, but dramatically elevated ionization,
indicating that photoionization is the predominant mechanism that creates paths
for LyC escape. We conjecture that tidal stripping of H I gas due to an
interaction could have removed a large portion of the neutral ISM around the
LyC emitting cluster, making it easier for the cluster to completely ionize the
rest.
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