Spectroscopically Identified Emission Line Galaxy Pairs in the WISP Survey
Journal
Date Issued
2021
Author(s)
Dai, Y. Sophia
•
Malkan, Matthew M.
•
Teplitz, Harry I.
•
Scarlata, Claudia
•
Alavi, Anahita
•
Atek, Hakim
•
Bagley, Micaela
•
•
Battisti, Andrew
•
Bunker, Andrew J.
•
Hathi, Nimish P.
•
Henry, Alaina
•
Huang, Jiasheng
•
Jin, Gaoxiang
•
Li, Zijian
•
Martin, Crystal
•
Mehta, Vihang
•
Phillips, John
•
Rafelski, Marc
•
Rutkowski, Michael
•
Xu, Hai
•
Xu, Cong K.
•
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.
Volume
923
Issue
2
Start page
156
Issn Identifier
0004-637X
Rights
open.access
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