Full Title:

"Probing the Origin, Powering and Geometry of Lyman-Alpha Blobs

around High-z Radio-Loud Galaxies", Andrew Humphrey (Centro de Astrofisica da Universidade do Porto) 

Abstract:

Luminous high-redshift Ly-alpha blobs (LABS), often also known as

Ly-alpha 'nebulae', ‘halos’ or ‘fuzz’ in the literature, promise to

yield important insights into the physics of massive galaxy formation.

As prodigious sources of HI Ly-alpha photons, with ~10-100 kpc spatial

extents, they provide an efficient way to select distant galaxies (or

proto-galaxies) expected to be undergoing significant mass-assembly.

In this talk, I will present results from a recently accepted paper in

which we used long slit spectroscopy from GTC+OSIRIS to examine the

geometry, powering, and origin of the LAB and an absorption line

system associated with a radio-loud quasar at z=2.54.  I will also

discuss some interesting new results from long-slit spectropolarimetry

of LABs associated with z>2 radio galaxies, and their related

continuum structures.