Lyα-Emitting Galaxies at z = 3.1: L Progenitors Experiencing Rapid Star Formation

We studied the clustering properties and multiwavelength spectral energy distributions of a complete sample of 162 Ly alpha -emitting (LAE) galaxies at z [unk] 3.1 discovered in deep narrowband MUSYC imaging of the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South. LAEs were selected to have observed frame equivalent widths >80 AAA and emission line fluxes >1.5 x 10 super(-17) ergs cm super(-2) s super(-1). Only 1% of our LAE sample appears to host AGNs. The LAEs exhibit a moderate spatial correlation length of [unk] = [unk] Mpc, corresponding to a bias factor b = [unk], which implies median dark matter halo masses of log sub(10)M [unk] = [unk] M [unk]. Comparing the number density of LAEs, 1.5 plus or minus 0.3 x 10 super(-3) Mpc super(-3), with the number density of these halos finds a mean halo occupation similar to 1%-10%. The evolution of galaxy bias with redshift implies that most z = 3.1 LAEs evolve into present-day galaxies with [unk], whereas other z > 3 galaxy populations typically evolve into more massive galaxies. Halo merger trees show that z = 0 descendants occupy halos with a wide range of masses, with a median descendant mass close to that of [unk]. Only 30% of LAEs have sufficient stellar mass (> similar to 3 x [unk] M [unk]) to yield detections in deep Spitzer IRAC imaging. A two-population SED fit to the stacked UBVRIzJK+[3.6, 4.5, 5.6, 8.0] mu m fluxes of the IRAC-undetected objects finds that the typical LAE has low stellar mass ( [unk] x [unk] M [unk]), moderate star formation rate (2 plus or minus 1 M [unk] yr super(-1)), a young component age of [unk] Myr, and little dust (Av < 0.2). The best-fit model has 20% of the mass in the young stellar component, but models without evolved stars are also allowed.