ABSTRACT The reionization of hydrogen is closely linked to the first structures in the Universe, so understanding the timeline of reionization promises to shed light on the nature of these early objects. In particular, transmission of Lyman alpha (Ly α) from galaxies through the intergalactic medium (IGM) is sensitive to neutral hydrogen in the IGM, so can be used to probe the reionization timeline. In this work, we implement an improved model of the galaxy UV luminosity to dark matter halo mass relation to infer the volume-averaged fraction of neutral hydrogen in the IGM from Ly α observations. Many models assume that UV-bright galaxies are hosted by massive dark matter haloes in overdense regions of the IGM, so reside in relatively large ionized regions. However, observations and N-body simulations indicate that scatter in the UV luminosity–halo mass relation is expected. Here, we model the scatter (though we assume the IGM topology is unaffected) and assess the impact on Ly α visibility during reionization. We show that UV luminosity–halo mass scatter reduces Ly α visibility compared to models without scatter, and that this is most significant for UV-bright galaxies. We then use our model with scatter to infer the neutral fraction, $\overline{x}_{\mathrm{ H}\,{\small I}}$, at z ∼ 7 using a sample of Lyman-break galaxies in legacy fields. We infer $\overline{x}_{\mathrm{ H}\,{\small I}} = 0.55_{-0.13}^{+0.11}$ with scatter, compared to $\overline{x}_{\mathrm{ H}\,{\small I}} = 0.59_{-0.14}^{+0.12}$ without scatter, a very slight decrease and consistent within the uncertainties. Finally, we place our results in the context of other constraints on the reionization timeline and discuss implications for future high-redshift galaxy studies.
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Inferring the intergalactic medium neutral fraction at z ∼ 6–8 with low-luminosity Lyman break galaxies
We present a Bayesian inference on the neutral hydrogen fraction of the intergalactic medium (IGM), $\overline{x}_{\small HI}$, at z ∼ 6–8 using the properties of Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) during the epoch of reionization. We use large samples of LBG candidates at 5.5 ≤ z ≤ 8.2 with spectroscopy from Keck/DEIMOS and Keck/MOSFIRE. For each galaxy, we incorporate either the Lyman-α (Lyα) equivalent width (EW) for detections or the EW limit spectrum for non-detections to parametrize the EW distribution at various ultraviolet brightnesses for a given redshift. Using our reference sample of galaxy candidates from the ionized universe at z ∼ 6.0, we are able to infer $\overline{x}_{\small HI}$ at two redshifts: z ∼ 6.7 and z ∼ 7.6. This work includes intrinsically faint, gravitationally lensed galaxies at z ∼ 6.0 in order to constrain the intrinsic faint-end Lyα EW distribution and provide a comparable population of galaxies to counterparts in our sample that are at higher redshift. The inclusion of faint galaxy candidates, in addition to a more sophisticated modelling framework, allows us to better isolate effects of the interstellar medium and circumgalactic medium on the observed Lyα distribution from those of the IGM. We infer an upper limit of $\overline{x}_{\small HI}$ ≤ 0.25 (0.44) at z = 6.7 ± 0.2 and a neutral fraction of $\overline{x}_{\small HI}$ = $0.83^{+0.08}_{-0.11}$ (0.83$^{+0.11}_{-0.21}$) at z = 7.6 ± 0.6, both within 68 per cent (95 per cent) uncertainty, results that favour a moderately late and fairly rapid reionization.
more » « less- PAR ID:
- 10377235
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Volume:
- 517
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 0035-8711
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 3263-3274
- Size(s):
- p. 3263-3274
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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While the shape of the Lyα profile is viewed as one of the best tracers of ionizing-photon escape fraction (fesc) within low redshift (z~0.3) surveys of the Lyman continuum, this connection remains untested at high redshift. Here, we combine deep, rest-UV Keck/LRIS spectra of 80 objects from the Keck Lyman Continuum Spectroscopic Survey with rest-optical Keck/MOSFIRE spectroscopy in order to examine potential correlations between Lyα profile shape and the escape of ionizing radiation within z~3 star-forming galaxies. We measure the velocity separation between double-peaked Lyα emission structure (vsep), between red-side Lyα emission peaks and systemic (vLyα,red), and between red-side emission peaks and low-ionization interstellar absorption lines (vLyα−LIS). We find that the IGM-corrected ratio of ionizing to non-ionizing flux density is significantly higher in KLCS objects with lower vLyα,red. We find no significant trend between measures of ionizing-photon escape and vLyα−LIS. We compare our results to measurements of z~0.3 "Green Peas" from the literature and find that KLCS objects have larger vsep at fixed vLyα,red, larger fesc at fixed vLyα,red, and higher vLyα,red overall than z~0.3 analogs. We conclude that the Lyα profile shapes of our high-redshift sources are fundamentally different, and that measurements of profile shape such as vLyα,red map on to fesc in different ways. We caution against building reionization-era fesc diagnostics based purely on Lyα profiles of low-redshift dwarf galaxies. Tracing vsep, vLyα,red, and fesc in a larger sample of z~3 galaxies will reveal how these variables may be connected for galaxies at the epoch of reionization.more » « less
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