Abstract
The Lyα emitters found at z = 4.5 and 5.7 by the Large Area Lyman Alpha (LALA) survey have high equivalent widths in the Lyα line. Such lines can be produced by narrow-lined active galactic nuclei or by stellar populations with a very high proportion of young massive stars. To check for type II (i.e., narrow-lined) quasars, we obtained a deep X-ray image of 49 Lyα sources in a single field of the ACIS instrument on the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. None of these sources was detected with a 3 σ limiting X-ray luminosity of 2.9 σ 1043 ergs s-1. For comparison, the two known high-redshift type II quasars have luminosities of 4 × 1043 ergs s-1 before extinction correction. The sources remain undetected in stacked images of the 49 Lyα sources (with 6.5 Ms effective Chandra on-axis exposure) at 3 σ limits of 4.9 × 10 42. The resulting X-ray-to-Lyα ratio is about 4-24 times lower than the ratio for known type II quasars, while the average Lyα luminosity of the LALA sample is between the two type II's. The cumulative X-ray-to-Lyα ratio limit is also below that of 90% of low-redshift Seyfert galaxies.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | L25-L28 |
Journal | Astrophysical Journal |
Volume | 585 |
Issue number | 1 II |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 1 2003 |
Keywords
- Galaxies: active
- Galaxies: high-redshift
- Galaxies: starburst
- X-rays: galaxies
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Space and Planetary Science