Early Results from GLASS-JWST XXII: Rest frame UV-optical spectral properties of Lyman-alpha emitting galaxies at 3 $<$ z $<$ 6

Abstract

Ly$\alpha$ emission is possibly the best indirect diagnostic of Lyman continuum (LyC) escape since the conditions that favor the escape of Ly$\alpha$ photons are often the same that allows for the escape of LyC photons. In this work, we present the rest UV-optical spectral characteristics of 11 Ly$\alpha$ emitting galaxies at 3 $<$ z $<$ 6 - the optimal redshift range chosen to avoid the extreme IGM attenuation while simultaneously studying galaxies close enough to the epoch of reionization. From a combined analysis of JWST/NIRSpec and MUSE data, we present the Ly$\alpha$ escape fraction and study their correlations with other physical properties of galaxies that might facilitate Ly$\alpha$ escape. We find that our galaxies have low masses (80\% of the sample with $\rm log_{10} \ M_{\star} < 9.5\ M_{\odot}$), compact sizes (median $\rm R_e \sim 0.7 \ kpc $), low dust content, moderate [OIII]/[OII] flux ratios (mean $\sim$ 6.8 $\pm$ 1.2), and moderate Ly$\alpha$ escape fraction (mean $\rm f_{esc}^{Ly\alpha} \ \sim$ 0.11). Our sample show characteristics that are broadly consistent with the low redshift galaxies with Ly$\alpha$ emission, which are termed as "analogs" of high redshift population. We predict the Lyman continuum escape fraction in our sample to be low (0.03-0.07), although larger samples in the post-reionization epoch are needed to confirm these trends.