The clustering of typical Ly α emitters from z ∼ 2.5-6: Host halo masses depend on Ly α and UV luminosities

We investigate the clustering and halo properties of ∼5000 Ly α-selected emission-line galaxies (LAEs) from the Slicing COSMOS 4K (SC4K) and from archival NB497 imaging of SA22 split in 15 discrete redshift slices between z ∼ 2.5 and 6. We measure clustering lengths of r₀ ∼ 3-6 h⁻¹ Mpc and typical halo masses of ∼10¹¹ M_☉ for our narrowband-selected LAEs with typical L_{Ly α} ∼ 10^42-43 erg s⁻¹. The intermediate-band-selected LAEs are observed to have r₀ ∼ 3.5-15 h⁻¹ Mpc with typical halo masses of ∼10^11-12 M_☉ and typical L_{Ly α} ∼ 10^43-43.6 erg s⁻¹. We find a strong, redshift-independent correlation between halo mass and Ly α luminosity normalized by the characteristic Ly α luminosity, L_*(z). The faintest LAEs (L ∼ 0.1 L_*(z)) typically identified by deep narrowband surveys are found in 10¹⁰ M_☉ haloes and the brightest LAEs (L ∼ 7 L_*(z)) are found in ∼5 × 10¹² M_☉ haloes. A dependency on the rest-frame 1500 Å UV luminosity, M_UV, is also observed where the halo masses increase from 10¹¹ to 10¹³ M_☉ for M_UV ∼ −19 to −23.5 mag. Halo mass is also observed to increase from 10^9.8 to 10¹² M_☉ for dust-corrected UV star formation rates from ∼0.6 to 10 M_☉ yr⁻¹ and continues to increase up to 10¹³ M_☉ in halo mass, where the majority of those sources are active galactic nuclei. All the trends we observe are found to be redshift independent. Our results reveal that LAEs are the likely progenitors of a wide range of galaxies depending on their luminosity, from dwarf-like, to Milky Way-type, to bright cluster galaxies. LAEs therefore provide unique insight into the early formation and evolution of the galaxies we observe in the local Universe.