The Low-Redshift Lyman Continuum Survey I: New, Diverse Local Lyman-Continuum Emitters

Understand

The origins of Lyman continuum (LyC) photons responsible for the reionization of the universe are as of yet unknown and highly contested.

• Detecting LyC photons from the epoch of reionization is not possible due to absorption by the intergalactic medium, which has prompted the development of several indirect diagnostics to infer the rate at which galaxies contribute LyC photons to reionize the universe by studying lower-redshift analogs.
• We present the Low-redshift Lyman Continuum Survey (LzLCS) comprising measurements made with HST/COS for a z=0.2-0.4 sample of 66 galaxies.
• After careful processing of the FUV spectra, we obtain a total of 35 Lyman continuum emitters (LCEs) detected with 97.725% confidence, nearly tripling the number of known local LCEs.