A High-Resolution Hubble Space Telescope Study of Apparent Lyman Continuum Leakers at z~3

We present U_(336)V_(606)J_(125)H_(160) follow-up Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of 16 z ~ 3 candidate Lyman continuum (LyC) emitters in the HS1549+1919 field. With these data, we obtain high spatial-resolution photometric redshifts of all sub-arcsecond components of the LyC candidates in order to eliminate foreground contamination and identify robust candidates for leaking LyC emission. Of the 16 candidates, we find one object with a robust LyC detection that is not due to foreground contamination. This object (MD5) resolves into two components; we refer to the LyC-emitting component as MD5b. MD5b has an observed 1500 Å to 900 Å flux-density ratio of (F_(UV)/F_(LyC)_(obs) = 4.0 ± 2.0, compatible with predictions from stellar population synthesis models. Assuming minimal IGM absorption, this ratio corresponds to a relative (absolute) escape fraction of f_(esc,rel)^(MD5b) = 75%–100% f_(esc,abs)^(MD5b) = 14%–19%). The stellar population fit to MD5b indicates an age of ≾50 Myr, which is in the youngest 10% of the HST sample and the youngest third of typical z ~ 3 Lyman break galaxies, and may be a contributing factor to its LyC detection. We obtain a revised, contamination-free estimate for the comoving specific ionizing emissivity at z = 2.85, indicating (with large uncertainties) that star-forming galaxies provide roughly the same contribution as QSOs to the ionizing background at this redshift. Our results show that foreground contamination prevents ground-based LyC studies from obtaining a full understanding of LyC emission from z ~ 3 star-forming galaxies. Future progress in direct LyC searches is contingent upon the elimination of foreground contaminants through high spatial-resolution observations, and upon acquisition of sufficiently deep LyC imaging to probe ionizing radiation in high-redshift galaxies