Discovery of Massive, Mostly Star Formation Quenched Galaxies with Extremely Large Lyα Equivalent Widths at z ~ 3

Abstract

We report a discovery of six massive galaxies with both extremely large Lyα equivalent widths (EWs) and evolved stellar populations at z ~ 3. These MAssive Extremely STrong Lyα emitting Objects (MAESTLOs) have been discovered in our large-volume systematic survey for strong Lyα emitters (LAEs) with 12 optical intermediate-band data taken with Subaru/Suprime-Cam in the COSMOS field. Based on the spectral energy distribution fitting analysis for these LAEs, it is found that these MAESTLOs have (1) large rest-frame EWs of EW_0 (Lyα) ~ 100–300 Å, (2) M_★ ~ 10^(10.5)–10^(11.1) M_⊙, and (3) relatively low specific star formation rates of SFR/M_★ ~ 0.03–1 Gyr^(−1). Three of the six MAESTLOs have extended Lyα emission with a radius of several kiloparsecs, although they show very compact morphology in the HST/ACS images, which correspond to the rest-frame UV continuum. Since the MAESTLOs do not show any evidence for active galactic nuclei, the observed extended Lyα emission is likely to be caused by a star formation process including the superwind activity. We suggest that this new class of LAEs, MAESTLOs, provides a missing link from star-forming to passively evolving galaxies at the peak era of the cosmic star formation history.

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