LYα LINE FORMATION IN HUBBLE-TYPE SPHERICAL OUTFLOWS IN STARBURST GALAXIES

LYα LINE FORMATION IN HUBBLE-TYPE SPHERICAL OUTFLOWS IN STARBURST GALAXIES

Almost half of primeval galaxies show P-Cygni type profiles in the Ly$\alpha$ emission line. The main underlying mechanism for the profile formation in these systems is thought to be the frequency re-distribution of the line photons in expanding scattering media surrounding the emission source. A Monte Carlo code is developed to investigate the Ly$\alpha$ line transfer in an optically thick and moving medium with a careful consideration of the scattering in the damping wings. Typical column densities and expansion velocities of neutral hydrogen investigated in this study are $N_{H1}{\~}10^{17-20}\;cm^{-2}$ and ${\Delta}V{\~} 100 km\;s^{-1}$. We investigate the dependence of the emergent profiles on the kinematics and on the column density. Our numerical results are applied to show that the damped Ly$\alpha$ absorbers may possess an expanding H I supershell with bulk flow of ${\~}200 km\;s^{-l}$ and H I column density $N_{H1}{\~}10^{19}\;cm^{-2}$. We briefly discuss the observational implications.