Confirmation of a steep luminosity function for Lyα emitters at z = 5.7: A major component of reionization

Journal Article · Wed Jun 10 04:00:00 EDT 2015 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/806/1/19· OSTI ID:22883117

Dressler, Alan ^[1]; Henry, Alaina ^[2]; Martin, Crystal L. ^[3]; Sawicki, Marcin ^[4]; McCarthy, Patrick; Villaneuva, Edward ^[5]

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1. Carnegie Observatories, 813 Santa Barbara St., Pasadena, California 91101-1292 (United States)
2. Astrophysics Science Division, Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 665, Greenbelt, MD 20771 (United States)
3. University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Physics, Santa Barbara, CA 93106 (United States)
4. St. Mary's University, Department of Astronomy and Physics, 923 Robie Street, Halifax, N.S., B3H 3C3 (Canada)
5. Carnegie Observatories, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, California 91101-1292 (United States)

We report the first direct and robust measurement of the faint-end slope of the Lyα emitter (LAE) luminosity function (LF) at z = 5.7. Candidate LAEs from a low-spectral-resolution blind search with IMACS on Magellan-Baade were targeted at higher resolution to distinguish high-redshift LAEs from foreground galaxies. All but 2 of our 42 single-emission-line systems have flux F<2.0×10{sup −17} ergs s{sup −1} cm{sup −2}, making these the faintest emission-lines observed for a z = 5.7 sample with known completeness, an essential property for determining the faint end slope of the LAE LF. We find 13 LAEs as compared to 29 foreground galaxies, in very good agreement with the modeled foreground counts predicted in Dressler et al. that had been used to estimate a faint-end slope of α = −2.0 for the LAE LF. A 32% LAE fraction, LAE/(LAE+foreground) within the flux interval F=2−20 × 10{sup −18} ergs s{sup −1} cm{sup −2} constrains the faint end slope of the LF to −2.35<α<−1.95 (1σ). We show how this steep LF should provide, to the limit of our observations, M{sub UV} ∼ −16, more than 20% of the flux necessary to maintain ionization at z = 5.7, with a factor of 10 extrapolation in flux reaching more than 50%. This is in addition to the comparable contribution by brighter Lyman Break Galaxies M{sub UV} ≲ −18. We suggest that this bodes well for a sufficient supply of Lyman continuum photons by similar, low-mass star-forming galaxies within the reionization epoch at z≈7, only 250 Myr earlier.

• OSTI ID: 22883117
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 806; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United Kingdom
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
EMISSION
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
GALAXIES
IONIZATION
LUMINOSITY
LYMAN LINES
MASS
RED SHIFT
RESOLUTION
STARS