A Galaxy at z = 6.545 and Constraints on the Epoch of Reionization

Abstract

We report the discovery of a Lyman-alpha-emitting galaxy at redshift z=6.545 serendipitously identified in the course of spectroscopic follow-up of hard X-ray sources on behalf of the Serendipitous Extragalactic X-Ray Source Identification (SEXSI) survey. The line flux of the galaxy, 2.1e-17 erg/cm2/s, is similar to line fluxes probed by narrow-band imaging surveys; the 5.2 square-arcminutes surveyed implies a surface density of z~6.5 Lyman-alpha emitters somewhat higher than that inferred from narrow-band surveys. This source marks the sixth Lyman-alpha-emitting galaxy identified at z~6.5, a redshift putatively beyond the epoch of reionization when the damping wings of the neutral hydrogen of the intergalactic medium is capable of severely attenuating Lyman-alpha emission. By comparing the Lyman-alpha emitter luminosity functions at z~5.7 and z~6.5, we infer that the intergalactic medium may remain largely reionized from the local universe out to z~6.5.

arXiv comment16 pages, 4 figures; submitted to the Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (64)

• Maps of Dust IR Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and CMBR Foregrounds
• First Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters
• In the Beginning: The First Sources of Light and the Reionization of the Universe
• Evidence for Reionization at z ~ 6: Detection of a Gunn-Peterson Trough in a z=6.28 Quasar
• Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) First Year Observations: TE Polarization
• A Survey of z>5.7 Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II: Discovery of Three Additional Quasars at z>6
• Evolution of the Ionizing Background and the Epoch of Reionization from the Spectra of z~6 Quasars
• ESI, a new Keck Observatory echellette spectrograph and imager
• Reionization of the Intergalactic Medium and the Damping Wing of the Gunn-Peterson Trough
• Cosmological Reionization by Stellar Sources
• The Reionization of the Universe by the First Stars and Quasars
• Luminosity functions of Lyman-alpha emitters at z=6.5, and z=5.7: evidence against reionization at z=6
• The Density of Lyman-alpha Emitters at Very High Redshift
• The Universe Was Reionized Twice
• A Redshift z = 6.56 Galaxy Behind the Cluster Abell 370
• Probing the Ionization State of the Universe at z>6
• First Results from the Large Area Lyman Alpha Survey
• The Reionization History at High Redshifts I: Physical Models and New Constraints from CMB Polarization
• On the Threshold of the Reionization Epoch
• Probing reionization with Lyman-alpha emission lines
• Color-selected galaxies at z~6 in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey
• The Luminosity Function of Lyman Alpha Emitters at Redshift z~5.7
• Spectroscopic Confirmation of Three Redshift 5.7 Lyman-alpha Emitters from the Large Area Lyman Alpha Survey
• The Evolution of the Intergalactic Medium Transmission to Redshift Six
• A Probable z~7 Galaxy Strongly Lensed by the Rich Cluster Abell 2218: Exploring the Dark Ages
• The Discovery of Two Lyman$\alpha$ Emitters Beyond Redshift 6 in the Subaru Deep Field
• Scattered Lyman-alpha Radiation Around Sources Before Cosmological Reionization
• Was the Universe Reionized by Massive Population-III Stars?
• A Galaxy at z=5.34
• The Detectability of High Redshift Lyman Alpha Emission Lines Prior to the Reionization of the Universe
• A Faint Star-Forming System Viewed Through the Lensing Cluster Abell 2218: First Light at z~5.6?
• Lyman Alpha Emitters at Redshift z=5.7
• Cosmic Hydrogen Was Significantly Neutral a Billion Years After the Big Bang
• Spectroscopic Properties of the z=4.5 Lyman-alpha Emitters
• Evidence for a Cosmological Stromgren Surface and for Significant Neutral Hydrogen Surrounding the Quasar SDSS J1030+0524
• HST imaging and Keck Spectroscopy of z~6 I-band Drop-Out Galaxies in the ACS GOODS Fields
• Models for Dusty Lyman alpha Emitters at High Redshift
• Keck Spectroscopy and NICMOS Photometry of a Redshift z=5.60 Galaxy
• The Dark Age of the Universe
• An Extremely Luminous Galaxy at z=5.74
• A Luminous Lyman-alpha Emitting Galaxy at Redshift z=6.535: Discovery and Spectroscopic Confirmation
• Gamma-Ray Bursts versus Quasars: Lyman-alpha Signatures of Reionization versus Cosmological Infall
• A Galactic Wind at z = 5.190
• Searching for the Earliest Galaxies using the Gunn-Peterson Trough and the Lyman Alpha Emission Line
• Evolution of the Ionizing Radiation Background and Star Formation in the Aftermath of Cosmological Reionization
• Constraining the Topology of Reionization Through Lyman-alpha Absorption
• The Epoch of Reionization in Models with Reduced Small Scale Power
• One-Line Redshifts and Searches for High-Redshift Lyman-Alpha Emission
• ISAAC/VLT observations of a lensed galaxy at z=10.0
• The Serendipitous Extragalactic X-Ray Source Identification (SEXSI) Program: I. Characteristics of the Hard X-Ray Sample
• X-ray nondetection of the Lyman-alpha Emitters at z ~ 4.5
• Search Techniques for Distant Galaxies
• Discovery of a Color-Selected Quasar at z=5.50
• Discovery of a z = 6.17 galaxy from CFHT and VLT observations
• A Lyman alpha emitter at z = 6.5 found with slitless spectroscopy
• No X-ray Bright Type II Quasars Among the Lyman-alpha Emitters
• Constraints to the evolution of Ly-Alpha bright galaxies between z=3 and z=6
• The Space Density of Redshift 5.7 Ly-Alpha Emitters
• Discovery of a Transient U-band Dropout in a Lyman-Break Survey: A Tidally-Disrupted Star at z = 3.3?
• A VLT/FORS2 Multi-Slit Search for Lyman-alpha Emitting Galaxies at z~6.5
• The Damping Wing of the Gunn-Peterson Absorption and Lyman-Alpha Emitters in the Pre-Reionization Era
• Cosmic Renaissance: The First Sources of Light
• Gemini H-band imaging of the field of a z=10 candidate
• Reanalysis of the spectrum of the z=10 galaxy

Cited by in corpus (63)

• Cosmology at Low Frequencies: The 21 cm Transition and the High-Redshift Universe
• Constraining the Evolution of the Ionizing Background and the Epoch of Reionization with z ~ 6 Quasars II: A Sample of 19 Quasars
• Observational constraints on Cosmic Reionization
• The End of the Reionization Epoch Probed by Ly-alpha Emitters at z=6.5 in the Subaru Deep Field
• Spectroscopic Confirmation of Three z-Dropout Galaxies at z = 6.844 - 7.213: Demographics of Lyman-Alpha Emission in z ~ 7 Galaxies
• Simulating Cosmic Reionization at Large Scales I: the Geometry of Reionization
• Implications for the Cosmic Reionization from the Optical Afterglow Spectrum of the Gamma-Ray Burst 050904 at z = 6.3
• Formation of z ~ 6 quasars from hierarchical galaxy mergers
• Ly Alpha Emitters at z=5.7 in the Subaru Deep Field
• The Evolution of Optical Depth in the Ly-alpha Forest: Evidence Against Reionization at z~6
• A Keck Survey for Gravitationally-Lensed Lyman-alpha Emitters in the Redshift Range 8.5 < z < 10.4: New Constraints on the Contribution of Low Luminosity Sources to Cosmic Reionization
• First Results from the Lyman Alpha Galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization (LAGER) Survey: Cosmological Reionization at z ~ 7
• Radiative Transfer Modeling of Lyman Alpha Emitters. I. Statistics of Spectra and Luminosity
• Discovery of a Very Bright Strongly-Lensed Galaxy Candidate at z ~ 7.6
• A Luminosity Function of Lyman Alpha Emitting Galaxies at Redshift 4.5
• The Effects of Reionization on Lyman-alpha Galaxy Surveys
• First spectroscopic measurements of [OIII] emission from Lyman-alpha selected field galaxies at z ~ 3.1
• Glimpsing through the high redshift neutral hydrogen fog
• Evidence for Primordial Clustering Around the QSO SDSS J1030+0524 at z=6.28
• Lyman alpha emitting galaxies at 0.2 < z < 0.35 from GALEX spectroscopy
• Lyman Alpha Emitters at z=7 in the Subaru/XMM-Newton Deep Survey Field: Photometric Candidates and Luminosity Function
• Discovery of a z=6.1 Radio-Loud Quasar in the NDWFS
• The Physical Properties and Detectability of Reionization-Epoch Galaxies
• The Volume Fraction of Ionized Intergalactic Gas at Redshift z=6.5
• Constraints on Physical Properties of z~6 Galaxies Using Cosmological Hydrodynamic Simulations
• The Evolution of the Lyman-Alpha Luminosity Function During Reionization
• Spitzer Constraints on the z=6.56 Galaxy Lensed by Abell 370
• Lyman Alpha Emitters in the Hierarchically Clustering Galaxy Formation
• Constraining Reionization with the Evolution of the Luminosity Function of Lyman Alpha mitting Galaxies
• Discovery of excess O I absorption towards the z = 6.42 QSO SDSS J1148+5251
• The Luminosity Function of Lyman alpha Emitters at Redshift z=7.7
• Escape of Lyman-alpha and continuum photons from star-forming galaxies
• Spectroscopy of z~6 i-dropout Galaxies: Frequency of Ly-alpha Emission and the Sizes of Ly-alpha Emitting Galaxies
• Cosmological HII Bubble Growth During Reionization
• ART^2 : Coupling Lyman-alpha Line and Multi-wavelength Continuum Radiative Transfer
• The Serendipitous Extragalactic X-Ray Source Identification (SEXSI) Program. III. Optical Spectroscopy
• FIGS -- Faint Infrared Grism Survey: Description and Data Reduction
• Serendipitous Discovery of an Overdensity of Lyman-Alpha Emitters at z~4.8 in the Cl1604 Supercluster Field
• Relativistic Ionization Fronts
• Surface Brightness Profiles of Composite Images of Compact Galaxies at z~4-6 in the HUDF
• HST and Spitzer Observations of the Host Galaxy of GRB 050904: A Metal-Enriched, Dusty Starburst at z=6.295
• Discovery of an Optically-Faint Quasar at z=5.70 and Implications for the Faint End of the Quasar Luminosity Function
• Hubble Advanced Camera for Surveys Observations of the z=6.42 Quasar SDSS 1148+5251: A Leak in the Gunn-Peterson Trough
• The apparent shape of the "Strömgren sphere'' around the highest-redshift QSOs with Gunn-Peterson troughs
• An Observational Pursuit for Population III Stars in a Ly_alpha Emitter at z=6.33 through HeII Emission
• A Magellan IMACS Spectroscopic Search for Lyman-Alpha Emitting Galaxies at Redshift 5.7
• Cosmological Implications of the Very High Redshift GRB 050904
• A Lyman Alpha Galaxy at Redshift z=6.944 in the COSMOS Field
• A Physical Model of Lyman Alpha Emitters
• High-redshift Ly alpha emitters with a large equivalent width: Properties of i-dropout galaxies with an NB921-band depression in the Subaru Deep Field
• Understanding the redshift evolution of the luminosity functions of Lyman-alpha emitters
• Direct evidence for an early reionization of the Universe?
• Search for z~6.96 Ly-alpha emitters with Magellan/IMACS in the COSMOS field
• Photometric Properties of the Most Massive High-Redshift Galaxies
• Quasars as Probes of Late Reionization and Early Structure Formation
• Low-Metallicity Star Formation in High-Redshift Galaxies at z~8
• The HST/ACS Grism Parallel Survey: II. First Results and a Catalog of Faint Emission-Line Galaxies at z < 1.6
• A Lyman Break Galaxy in the Epoch of Reionization from HST Grism Spectroscopy
• Detecting the Most Distant (z>7) Objects with ALMA
• HI Lyman-alpha equivalent widths of stellar populations
• Metal Enrichment and Reionization Constraints on Early Star Formation
• The Near-Infrared Sky Surveyor
• On the Reionization of the Universe