Abstract
We identify a sample of spectroscopically measured emission line galaxy (ELG) Pairs up to z = 1.6 from the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) Infrared Spectroscopic Parallels (WISP) survey. WISP obtained slitless, near-infrared grism spectroscopy along with direct imaging in the J and H bands by observing in the pure-parallel mode with the WFC3 on board the Hubble Space Telescope. From our search of 419 WISP fields covering an area of ∼0.5 deg2, we find 413 ELG pair systems, mostly H α emitters. We then derive reliable star formation rates (SFRs) based on the attenuation-corrected H α fluxes. Compared to isolated galaxies, we find an average SFR enhancement of 40%–65%, which is stronger for major Pairs and Pairs with smaller velocity separations (Δ v < 300 km s−1). Based on the stacked spectra from various subsamples, we study the trends of emission line ratios in pairs, and find a general consistency with enhanced lower ionization lines. We study the pair fraction among ELGs, and find a marginally significant increase with redshift f ∝ (1 + z) α , where the power-law index α = 0.58 ± 0.17 from z ∼ 0.2 to ∼1.6. The fraction of active galactic nuclei is found to be the same in the ELG Pairs as compared to the isolated ELGs.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 156 |
| Journal | Astrophysical Journal |
| Volume | 923 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 20 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the . Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. NASA ∣ GSFC ∣ Astrophysics Science Division (ASD) https://doi.org/10.13039/100007726 NAS 5-26555 NSFC ∣ Key Programme https://doi.org/10.13039/501100010903 10878003 NSFC 11933003 National Key R&D Program of China 2017YFA0402703 China manned space project CMS-CSST-2021-A05 ERC 789056 yes � 2021. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.