Abstract
$Ly{\alpha}$ blobs are mysterious, giant (~100 kpc), glowing gas clouds in the distant universe. They occupy the dark matter halos that will evolve into the richest groups and clusters today. The blob's gas may be the proto-intracluster medium and their embedded galaxies are considered as the progenitors of massive cluster galaxies. Yet we do not know why $Ly{\alpha}$ blobs glow. There are evidences of kinematic measurements to exclude shocks and winds from AGN or starbursts as a power source, suggesting that photoionizing radiation or scattering of $Ly{\alpha}$ photons might be responsible. Polarization mapping can discriminate between these photo-ionization and scattering. Previous results of imaging polarimetry for $Ly{\alpha}$ nebulae are roughly consistent with scattering models. However the polarization morphologies in those of previous results are all different, motivating our polarimetric survey of $Ly{\alpha}$ nebulae for the statisticallymeaningful sample. As initial results of our survey, we present the total polarization map of the LABd05 which has the spatial offset between the peak of $Ly{\alpha}$ surface brightness and an obscured AGN. We detect the significant polarization in this target with the radially increasing polarization gradient, suggesting that scattering plays major role within this nebula. The polarization pattern is more aligned with the $Ly{\alpha}$ peak rather than the AGN (the potential energy source), indicating that the $Ly{\alpha}$ photons are originated from the region near the peak of $Ly{\alpha}$ intensity.
(Seoul National University)