The End of the Reionization Epoch Probed by Lyα Emitters at z = 6.5 in the Subaru Deep Field

By N. Kashikawa, K. Shimasaku, M. Malkan, M. Doi, Y. Matsuda, M. Ouchi, Yoshiaki Taniguchi, C. Ly, Tohru Nagao, M. Iye and 9 more. 2006

348 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We report an extensive search for Lyα emitters (LAEs) at z = 6.5 in the Subaru Deep Field. Subsequent spectroscopy with Subaru and Keck identified eight more LAEs, giving a total of 17 spectroscopically confirmed LAEs at z = 6.5. Based on this spectroscopic sample of 17, complemented by a photometric sample of 58 LAEs, we have derived a more accurate Lyα luminosity function of LAEs at z = 6.5, which reveals an apparent deficit at the bright end of ~0.75 mag fainter L*, compared with that observed at z = 5.7. The difference in the LAE luminosity functions between z = 5.7 and 6.5 is significant at the 3 σ level, which is reduced to 2 σ when cosmic variance is taken into account. This result may imply that the reionization of the universe has not been completed at z = 6.5. We found that the spatial distribution of LAEs at z = 6.5 was homogeneous over the field. We discuss the implications of these results for the reionization of the universe.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ac63c3f0cb684d6e0bdad9f5e7f7a05d74e8f5d5

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1. L. Hernquist
2. P. Hopkins
3. Richard S. Ellis
4. J. Dunlop
5. R. Bouwens
6. P. V. van Dokkum
7. Brant Robertson
8. M. Franx

Citations in the corpus

• NEW CONSTRAINTS ON COSMIC REIONIZATION FROM THE 2012 HUBBLE ULTRA DEEP FIELD CAMPAIGN (2013, background): “Such surveys have a long history (e.g., Hu et al. 2002; Malhotra & Rhoads 2004; Santos et al. 2004; Kashikawa et al. 2006).”
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• Keck spectroscopy of faint 3 < z < 7 Lyman break galaxies – I. New constraints on cosmic reionization from the luminosity and redshift-dependent fraction of Lyman α emission (2010, background): “…are sensitive to sudden changes in the transmission of Lyα photons that would be expected if the ionization state of the IGM changes, complementary to past efforts to link evolution in the Lyα LF to reionization (e.g. Malhotra & Rhoads 2004; Kashikawa et al. 2006; Iye et al. 2006; Ota et al. 2008).”
• Systematic Identification of LAEs for Visible Exploration and Reionization Research Using Subaru HSC (SILVERRUSH). I. Program strategy and clustering properties of ∼2000 Lyα emitters at z = 6–7 over the 0.3–0.5 Gpc2 survey area (2017, background): “…LAE surveys reveal various statistical properties of LAEs up to z ∼ 7 including the evolution of Lyα luminosity functions (LFs; Malhotra & Rhoads 2004; Kashikawa et al. 2006, 2011; Deharveng et al. 2008; Ouchi et al. 2008, 2010; Cowie et al. 2010; Hu et al. 2010; Konno et al. 2014; Matthee et al.…”
• Radiative Transfer Simulations of Cosmic Reionization. I. Methodology and Initial Results (2006, background): “Current and future observations, primarily high-redshift surveys of Ly -emitting galaxies (e.g., Kashikawa et al. 2006), cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurements of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich (KSZ) effect from free electrons (e.g., the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, the South Pole Telescope,…”
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• The physics of the intergalactic medium (2007, methodology): “Evidence for such rapid evolution over the redshift range 5.7 < z < 7 has been obtained from the Subaru Deep Field (Iye et al., 2006; Kashikawa et al., 2006).”
• Identification of the brightest Lyα emitters at z = 6.6 : Implications for the evolution of the luminosity function in the reionization era (2015, background): “This explains also the differences (although largely within the errors) with Kashikawa et al. (2006), although cosmic variance plays a role because of their limited survey area.”
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• 21cmfast: a fast, seminumerical simulation of the high‐redshift 21‐cm signal (2010, background): “…quasars (e.g. Fan et al. 2006), candidate Lyman break galaxies (e.g. Bouwens et al. 2008, 2009; McLure et al. 2009; Ouchi et al. 2009), Lyman alpha emitters (LAEs; e.g. Kashikawa et al. 2006; Shimasaku et al. 2006) and GRBs (e.g. Cusumano et al. 2006; Greiner et al. 2009; Salvaterra et al. 2009).”
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• The Luminosity Function and Star Formation Rate between Redshifts of 0.07 and 1.47 for Narrowband Emitters in the Subaru Deep Field (2006, background): “For example, Hu et al. (2002), Ajiki et al. (2003), Kodaira et al. (2003), Taniguchi et al. (2003), Hu et al. (2004), Kashikawa et al. (2006), and Shimasaku et al. (2006) have confirmed candidate Lyα emitters (LAEs) at z = 5.7 and 6.6 with follow-up spectroscopy.”
• Efficient Simulations of Early Structure Formation and Reionization (2007, background): “Current observations paint a complex picture of the reionization epoch (Mesinger & Haiman 2004; Wyithe & Loeb 2004; Fan et al. 2006; Mesinger & Haiman 2006; Malhotra & Rhoads 2004; Furlanetto et al. 2006c; Malhotra & Rhoads 2006; Page et al. 2006; Kashikawa et al. 2006; Totani et al. 2006).”
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• THE HETDEX PILOT SURVEY. II. THE EVOLUTION OF THE Lyα ESCAPE FRACTION FROM THE ULTRAVIOLET SLOPE AND LUMINOSITY FUNCTION OF 1.9 (2010, methodology): “…al. (2010), the z = 2.2 data of Hayes et al. (2010a), the z = 4.5 measurement by Dawson et al. (2007), the measurement at z = 5.7 of Shimasaku et al. (2006), the z = 6.5 data from Kashikawa et al. (2006), the data of Ouchi et al. (2010) at z=6.6, and the z = 7.7 measurement of Hibon et al. (2010).”
• He ii REIONIZATION AND ITS EFFECT ON THE INTERGALACTIC MEDIUM (2008, methodology): “To test this model, many observations are targeting high redshifts to probe hydrogen reionization (e.g., Fan et al. 2002; Taniguchi et al. 2005; Bouwens et al. 2007; Kashikawa et al. 2006; Stark et al. 2007; Totani et al. 2006).”
• A SURVEY OF z ∼ 6 QUASARS IN THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY DEEP STRIPE. I. A FLUX-LIMITED SAMPLE AT zAB < 21 (2007, background): “Galaxies probably can provide enough photons for the reionization (e.g. Yan & Windhorst 2004; Bouwens et al. 2006; Kashikawa et al. 2006; McQuinn et al. 2007), however, the individual contributions of galaxies and quasars to the reionization are not well determined.”