Studying reionization with the next generation of Ly-alpha emitter surveys

Abstract

We study the prospects for constraining the ionized fraction of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at $z>6$ with the next generation of large Ly$\alpha$ emitter surveys. We make predictions for the upcoming Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) Ly$\alpha$ survey and a hypothetical spectroscopic survey performed with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Considering various scenarios where the observed evolution of the Ly$\alpha$ luminosity function of Ly$\alpha$ emitters at $z>6$ is explained partly by an increasingly neutral IGM and partly by intrinsic galaxy evolution, we show how clustering measurements will be able to distinguish between these scenarios. We find that the HSC survey should be able to detect the additional clustering induced by a neutral IGM if the global IGM neutral fraction is greater than $\sim$20 per cent at $z=6.5$. If measurements of the Ly$\alpha$ equivalent widths (EWs) are also available, neutral fractions as small as 10 per cent may be detectable by looking for correlation between the EW and the local number density of objects. In this case, if it should turn out that the IGM is significantly neutral at $z=6.5$ and the intrinsic EW distribution is relatively narrow, the observed EWs can also be used to construct a map of the locations and approximate sizes of the largest ionized regions. For the JWST survey, the results appear a bit less optimistic. Since such surveys probe a large range of redshifts, the effects of the IGM will be mixed up with any intrinsic galaxy evolution that is present, making it difficult to disentangle the effects. However, we show that a survey with the JWST will have a possibility of observing a large group of galaxies at $z\sim 7$, which would be a strong indication of a partially neutral IGM.

14 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (9)

• UV Luminosity Functions at z~4, 5, and 6 from the HUDF and other Deep HST ACS Fields: Evolution and Star Formation History
• 3D Lyman-alpha radiation transfer. I. Understanding Lyman-alpha line profile morphologies
• The End of the Reionization Epoch Probed by Ly-alpha Emitters at z=6.5 in the Subaru Deep Field
• The morphology of HII regions during reionization
• Studying Reionization with Ly-alpha Emitters
• Self-regulated reionization
• Lyman alpha Radiative Transfer in Cosmological Simulations using Adaptive Mesh Refinement
• Lyman-alpha Emitters During the Early Stages of Reionization
• Towards optimal parallel PM N-body codes: PMFAST

Cited by in corpus (24)

• Rapid Decline of Lyman-alpha Emission Toward the Reionization Era
• Identification of the brightest Lyα emitters at z=6.6: implications for the evolution of the luminosity function in the re-ionisation era
• Dark Matter Halos in Galaxies and Globular Cluster Populations. II: Metallicity and Morphology
• The THESAN project: Lyman-alpha emission and transmission during the Epoch of Reionization
• Onset of Cosmic Reionization: Evidence of An Ionized Bubble Merely 680 Myrs after the Big Bang
• Lyman alpha Emitting Galaxies in the Nearby Universe
• The Lyman-alpha signature of the first galaxies
• LAGER Ly$\alpha$ Luminosity Function at $z\sim 7$, Implications for Reionization
• Strong Ly$\alpha$ Emission in an Overdense Region at $z=6.8$: A Very Large ($R\sim 3$ physical Mpc) Ionized Bubble in COSMOS?
• Modelling the observed luminosity function and clustering evolution of Lyman-$\alpha$ emitters: growing evidence for late reionization
• Lyman-$\alpha$ as a tracer of cosmic reionisation in the SPHINX radiation-hydrodynamics cosmological simulation
• The impact of non-Gaussianity on the error covariance for observations of the Epoch of Reionization 21-cm power spectrum
• A Magellan M2FS Spectroscopic Survey of Galaxies at 5.5<z<6.8: Program Overview and a Sample of the Brightest Lyman-alpha Emitters
• Clustering and lifetime of Lyman Alpha Emitters in the Epoch of Reionization
• The impact of non-Gaussianity on the Epoch of Reionization parameter forecast using 21-cm power spectrum measurements
• Constraining Reionization in Progress at z=5.7 with Lyman-$\alpha$ Emitters: Voids, Peaks, and Cosmic Variance
• The spin-temperature dependence of the 21cm -- LAE cross-correlation
• Predictions for the 21cm-galaxy cross-power spectrum observable with SKA and future galaxy surveys
• A search for Population III galaxies in CLASH. I. Singly-imaged candidates at high redshift
• Void Probability Function of Simulated Surveys of high-redshift Lyman-Alpha Emitters
• Galaxy formation from a timescale perspective
• Probing Patchy Reionization with the Void Probability Function of Lyman-$\alpha$ Emitters
• Constraints on the Epoch of Reionization with Roman Space Telescope and the Void Probability Function of Lyman-Alpha Emitters
• Can luminous Lyman alpha emitters at $z$ $\simeq$ 5.7 and $z$ $\simeq$ 6.6 suppress star formation?