Modelling high redshift Lyman-alpha Emitters
  We present a new model for high redshift Lyman-Alpha Emitters (LAEs) in the
cosmological context which takes into account the resonant scattering of Ly-a
photons through expanding gas. The GALICS semi-analytic model provides us with
the physical properties of a large sample of high redshift galaxies. We
implement a gas outflow model for each galaxy based on simple scaling
arguments. The coupling with a library of numerical experiments of Ly-a
transfer through expanding or static dusty shells of gas allows us to derive
the Ly-a escape fractions and profiles. The predicted distribution of Ly-a
photons escape fraction shows that galaxies with a low star formation rate have
a f_esc of the order of unity, suggesting that, for those objects, Ly-a may be
used to trace the star formation rate assuming a given conversion law. In
galaxies forming stars intensely, the escape fraction spans the whole range
from 0 to 1. The model is able to get a good match to the UV and Ly-a
luminosity function (LF) data at 3 < z < 5. We find that we are in good
agreement with both the bright Ly-a data and the faint population observed by
Rauch et al. (2008) at z=3. Most of the Ly-a profiles of our LAEs are
redshifted by the diffusion in the outflow which suppresses IGM absorption. The
bulk of the observed Ly-a equivalent width (EW) distribution is recovered by
our model, but we fail to obtain the very large values sometimes detected.
Predictions for stellar masses and UV LFs of LAEs show a satisfactory agreement
with observational estimates. The UV-brightest galaxies are found to show only
low Ly-a EWs in our model, as it is reported by many observations of high
redshift LAEs. We interpret this effect as the joint consequence of old stellar
populations hosted by UV-bright galaxies, and high HI column densities that we
predict for these objects, which quench preferentially resonant Ly-a photons
via dust extinction.
