Lyα and C iii] emission in z = 7–9 Galaxies: accelerated reionization around luminous star-forming systems?

By D. Stark, Richard S. Ellis, S. Charlot, J. Chevallard, M. Tang, S. Belli, A. Zitrin, R. Mainali, Julia Gutkin, A. Vidal-García and 2 more. 2016

253 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We discuss new Keck/MOSFIRE spectroscopic observations of four luminous galaxies at z ≃ 7–9 selected to have intense optical line emission by Roberts-Borsani et al. Previous follow-up has revealed Lyα in two of the four galaxies. Our new MOSFIRE observations confirm that Lyα is present in the entire sample. We detect Lyα emission in the galaxy COS-zs7-1, confirming its redshift as zLyα = 7.154, and we detect Lyα in EGS-zs8-2 at zLyα = 7.477, verifying an earlier tentative detection. The ubiquity of Lyα in this sample is puzzling given that the IGM is expected to be significantly neutral over 7 7 is expected to be strongly luminosity-dependent, with transmission accelerated in systems with intense star formation.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7dcbd6bddb25693ab6a106d080048f6d4a586e27

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Citations in the corpus

Big Three Dragons: A z = 7.15 Lyman-break galaxy detected in [O iii] 88 μm, [C ii] 158 μm, and dust continuum with ALMA (2018, background): “Stark et al. (2017) have discussed possible origins of the enhanced Lyα visibility of these UV luminous galaxies, one of which is that their large Lyα velocity offsets make Lyα photons less affected by the IGM attenuation when Lyα photons enter the IGM.”
The Universe Is Reionizing at z ∼ 7: Bayesian Inference of the IGM Neutral Fraction Using Lyα Emission from Galaxies (2017, background): “…Spitzer/IRAC excesses have recently been observed with Lyα (Finkelstein et al. 2013; Roberts-Borsani et al. 2016; Oesch et al. 2015; Zitrin et al. 2015; Stark et al. 2017), at a redshift when the IGM is expected to be significantly neutral (Planck Collaboration et al. 2016; Greig & Mesinger 2017b).”
Detection of the Far-infrared [O iii] and Dust Emission in a Galaxy at Redshift 8.312: Early Metal Enrichment in the Heart of the Reionization Era (2018, background): “These lines, in addition to the restframe optical oxygen and nitrogen lines, are also useful for characterizing the metal enrichment of the interstellar medium (ISM) and stellar components of the galaxies (e.g., Stark et al. 2015a, 2015b, 2017; Mainali et al. 2018).”
Dust in the Reionization Era: ALMA Observations of a z = 8.38 Gravitationally Lensed Galaxy (2017, background): “For (2) although the line is somewhat narrow for Lyα (rest-frame width ≈ 20km s−1), its equivalent width deduced from the line flux and the F125W photometry is 10.7 ± 2.7 Å , consistent with the range seen in other z > 7 spectroscopically-confirmed sources (Stark et al. 2017).”
Inferences on the timeline of reionization at z ∼ 8 from the KMOS Lens-Amplified Spectroscopic Survey (2019, background): “…spanning opposite ends of the galaxy UV luminosity function: the IGM attenuation of Lyα from UV bright and UV faint galaxies is expected to be different due to differing Lyα escape paths through their interstellar and circumgalactic media (e.g., Stark et al. 2010, 2017; Mason et al. 2018b).”
Conditions for Reionizing the Universe with a Low Galaxy Ionizing Photon Escape Fraction (2019, background): “Tang & Stark (2018) modeled the photometric and spectroscopic measurements from galaxies at z=1.4–2.4 selected to have strong [O III] emission lines, similar in strength to those observed in many high-redshift galaxies (e.g., Smit et al. 2015).”
SILVERRUSH. IV. Lyα luminosity functions at z = 5.7 and 6.6 studied with ∼1300 Lyα emitters on the 14–21 deg2 sky (2017, background): “…et al. 2010; Shibuya et al. 2012; Yamada et al. 2012; Konno et al. 2014) and spectroscopic observations (e.g., Deharveng et al. 2008; Adams et al. 2011; Finkelstein et al. 2013; Schenker et al. 2014; Cassata et al. 2015; Oesch et al. 2015; Zitrin et al. 2015; Song et al. 2016; Stark et al. 2017).”
Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis Version 2.1: Construction, Observational Verification, and New Results (2017, background): “…CIII] λ1909 Å doublet has attracted particular attention of late as the result of its detection in a handful of very distant (z > 6) star-forming galaxies (Stark et al. 2015, 2017), and its position in the rest-frame ultraviolet, which means it is observable in the optical in the distant Universe.”