Supervisor: Laura Pentericci
The search for Lyman continuum emitters, i.e.. galaxies from which ionizing radiation can escape into the IGM, is still a challenging tasks. So far only a few LyC emitters have been detected in a solid way. Most other measurements rely on staking analysis, either with deep imaging or spectroscopy.
We will exploit the ultradeep spectra obtained by VANDELS to determine the average amount of LyC emission at z=4.5., by stacking deep spectra of around 100 galaxies in the redshift range 4.3-5 where the IGM trasmission is still >10%, and the 910 A region (LyC emission) enters the VANDELS observed spectral range.
We will also investigate if this fraction varies with physical characteristics of the galaxies (by performing separate stacks for mass/luminosity bins) and also as a function of the properties of the Lyman alpha emission line, as also predicted by models and observed at lower redshift.