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Spectroscopy of z 7 candidate galaxies : using Lyman to constrain the neutral fraction of hydrogen in the high-redshift universe
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Caruana, J., Bunker, A. J., Wilkins, S. M., Stanway, Elizabeth R., Lorenzoni, S., Jarvis, M. J. and Ebert, H. (2014) Spectroscopy of z 7 candidate galaxies : using Lyman to constrain the neutral fraction of hydrogen in the high-redshift universe. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 443 (Number 4). pp. 2831-2842. doi:10.1093/mnras/stu1341
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu1341
Abstract
Following our previous spectroscopic observations of z > 7 galaxies with Gemini/Gemini Near Infra-Red Spectrograph (GNIRS) and Very Large Telescope (VLT)/XSHOOTER, which targeted a total of eight objects, we present here our results from a deeper and larger VLT/FOcal Reducer and Spectrograph (FORS2) spectroscopic sample of Wide Field Camera 3 selected z > 7 candidate galaxies. With our FORS2 setup we cover the 737–1070 nm wavelength range, enabling a search for Lyman α in the redshift range spanning 5.06–7.80. We target 22 z-band dropouts and find no evidence of Lyman α emission, with the exception of a tentative detection (<5σ, which is our adopted criterion for a secure detection) for one object. The upper limits on Lyman α flux and the broad-band magnitudes are used to constrain the rest-frame equivalent widths for this line emission. We analyse our FORS2 observations in combination with our previous GNIRS and XSHOOTER observations, and suggest that a simple model where the fraction of high rest-frame equivalent width emitters follows the trend seen at z = 3-6.5 is inconsistent with our non-detections at z ∼ 7.8 at the 96 per cent confidence level. This may indicate that a significant neutral H I fraction in the intergalactic medium suppresses Lyman α, with an estimated neutral fraction
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||||
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| Divisions: | Faculty of Science > Physics | ||||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society | ||||||||||
| Publisher: | Oxford University Press | ||||||||||
| ISSN: | 0035-8711 | ||||||||||
| Official Date: | October 2014 | ||||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | Volume 443 | ||||||||||
| Number: | Number 4 | ||||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 2831-2842 | ||||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1093/mnras/stu1341 | ||||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||||
| Adapted As: |
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