THE LUMINOSITY FUNCTION OF Ly{alpha} EMITTERS AT REDSHIFT z = 7.7

Journal Article · Fri Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/721/2/1853· OSTI ID:21464742

Tilvi, Vithal; Rhoads, James E; Hibon, Pascale; Malhotra, Sangeeta ^[1]; Junxian, Wang ^[2]; Veilleux, Sylvain; Swaters, Rob; Krug, Hannah ^[3]; Probst, Ron; Dickinson, Mark ^[4]

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1. School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287 (United States)
2. Center for Astrophysics, University of Science and Technology of China, Anhui 230026 (China)
3. Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (United States)
4. NOAO, Tucson, AZ 85719 (United States)

Ly{alpha} emission lines should be attenuated in a neutral intergalactic medium. Therefore, the visibility of Ly{alpha} emitters at high redshifts can serve as a valuable probe of reionization at about the 50% level. We present an imaging search for z = 7.7 Ly{alpha} emitting galaxies using an ultra-narrowband filter (filter width = 9 A) on the NEWFIRM imager at the Kitt Peak National Observatory. We found four candidate Ly{alpha} emitters in a survey volume of 1.4x10{sup 4} Mpc{sup 3}, with a line flux brighter than 6 x 10{sup -18} erg cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} (5{sigma} in 2'' aperture). We also performed a detailed Monte Carlo simulation incorporating the instrumental effects to estimate the expected number of Ly{alpha} emitters in our survey and found that we should expect to detect one Ly{alpha} emitter, assuming a non-evolving Ly{alpha} luminosity function (LF) between z = 6.5 and z = 7.7. Even if one of the present candidates is spectroscopically confirmed as a z {approx} 8 Ly{alpha} emitter, it would indicate that there is no significant evolution of the Ly{alpha} LF from z = 3.1 to z {approx} 8. While firm conclusions would need both spectroscopic confirmations and larger surveys to boost the number counts of galaxies, we successfully demonstrate the feasibility of sensitive near-infrared (1.06 {mu}m) narrowband searches using custom filters designed to avoid the OH emission lines that make up most of the sky background.

• OSTI ID: 21464742
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 721; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
CALCULATION METHODS
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
EVOLUTION
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
GALAXIES
LUMINOSITY
MONTE CARLO METHOD
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RED SHIFT
SIMULATION