Lyα Polarization: An Implication to the Lyα Blobs

The extended Lyα nebulae (also known as Lyα blobs or LABs) observed at z=2-6 can provide clues to galaxy formation in the early universe. The connection of LABs with the overdensities of compact Lyα emitters suggests that they are associated with matter density peaks in the universe and thus likely to evolve into the present-day groups and clusters of galaxies. However, the mechanism powering the extended Lyα emission in LABs is remained controversial. The detection of polarization signals that follow the theoretically predicted trend is interpreted as strong evidence supporting that the LABs are caused primarily by the resonance scattering of Lyα originating from star-forming galaxies and AGNs. However, Trebitsch et al. (2016) claimed that the radial profile of polarization could be better explained by the scenario in which Lyα photons are produced in the cooling gas surrounding galaxies and then self-scattered by the gas, rather than by the scattering scenario of photons originating from the central galaxies. In this presentation, using LaRT, a state-of-art Lyα radiative transfer code, it is demonstrated that the observed polarization pattern can be reproduced even with the scattering scenario.