A Magellan M2FS Spectroscopic Survey of Galaxies at 5.5<z<6.8: Program Overview and a Sample of the Brightest Lyman-alpha Emitters

Abstract

We present a spectroscopic survey of high-redshift, luminous galaxies over four square degrees on the sky, aiming to build a large and homogeneous sample of Ly$\alpha$ emitters (LAEs) at $z\approx 5.7$ and 6.5, and Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) at $5.5<z<6.8$. The fields that we choose to observe are well-studied, such as SXDS and COSMOS. They have deep optical imaging data in a series of broad and narrow bands, allowing efficient selection of galaxy candidates. Spectroscopic observations are being carried out using the multi-object spectrograph M2FS on the Magellan Clay telescope. M2FS is efficient to identify high-redshift galaxies, owing to its 256 optical fibers deployed over a circular field-of-view 30 arcmin in diameter. We have observed $\sim 2.5$ square degrees. When the program is completed, we expect to identify more than 400 bright LAEs at $z\approx 5.7$ and 6.5, and a substantial number of LBGs at $z\ge 6$. This unique sample will be used to study a variety of galaxy properties and to search for large protoclusters. Furthermore, the statistical properties of these galaxies will be used to probe cosmic reionization. We describe the motivation, program design, target selection, and M2FS observations. We also outline our science goals, and present a sample of the brightest LAEs at $z\approx 5.7$ and 6.5. This sample contains 32 LAEs with Ly$\alpha$ luminosities higher than 10${}^{43}$ erg s${}^{-1}$. A few of them reach $\ge 3\times 10^{43}$ erg s${}^{-1}$, comparable to the two most luminous LAEs known at $z\ge 6$, `CR7' and `COLA1'. These LAEs provide ideal targets to study extreme galaxies in the distant universe.

18 pages, 11 figures, Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

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• Definitive upper bound on the negligible contribution of quasars to cosmic reionization
• The Magellan M2FS Spectroscopic Survey of High-$z$ Galaxies: Lyα Emitters at $z\approx 6.6$ and the Evolution of Lyα Luminosity Function over $z\approx 5.7-6.6$
• An Hα Impression of Lyα Galaxies at $z\simeq 6$ with Deep JWST/NIRCam Imaging
• The Ultraluminous Lyman Alpha Luminosity Function at z=6.6
• The Magellan M2FS Spectroscopic Survey of High-Redshift Galaxies: A Sample of 260 Ly$\alpha$ Emitters at Redshift $z\approx 5.7$
• SILVERRUSH X: Machine Learning-Aided Selection of $9318$ LAEs at $z=2.2$, $3.3$, $4.9$, $5.7$, $6.6$, and $7.0$ from the HSC SSP and CHORUS Survey Data
• Luminous Lyman-alpha Emitters with Very Blue UV-continuum Slopes at Redshift 5.7 <= z <= 6.6
• Unveiling Luminous Ly$\alpha$ Emitters at $z\approx 6$ through JWST/NIRCam Imaging in the COSMOS Field
• Diffuse Lyman-alpha Halos around ~300 Spectroscopically Confirmed Lyman-alpha Emitters at z ~ 5.7
• Design for the First Narrowband Filter for the Dark Energy Camera: Optimizing the LAGER Survey for z ~ 7 Galaxies
• A Spectroscopic Survey of Ly$\alpha$ Emitters at $z\approx 3.1$ over $\sim$1.2 Deg${}^2$