Search

Lyα emission from galaxies can be utilized to characterize the ionization state in the intergalactic medium (IGM). We report our search for Lyα emission at z > 7 using a comprehensive Keck/MOSFIRE near-infrared spectroscopic data set, as part of the Texas Spectroscopic Search for Lyα Emission at the End of Reionization Survey. We analyze data from 10 nights of MOSFIRE observations which together target 72 high-z candidate galaxies in the GOODS-N field, all with deep exposure times of 4.5–19 hr. Utilizing an improved automated emission-line search, we report 10 Lyα emission lines detected (>4σ) at z > 7, significantly increasing the spectroscopically confirmed sample. Our sample includes large equivalent-width (EW) Lyα emitters (>50 Å), and additional tentative Lyα emission lines detected at 3σ–4σ from five additional galaxies. We constrain the Lyα EW distribution at z ~ 7.6, finding a significant drop from z ≲ 6, suggesting an increasing fraction of neutral hydrogen (H I) in the IGM in this epoch. We estimate the Lyα transmission through the IGM (=EW(z)~7.6/EW(z~2–6)) and infer an IGM H I fraction (X(HI)) of 49 (+19,-19)% at z ~ 7.6, which is lower in modest tension (>1σ) with recent measurements at z ~ 7.6. The spatial distribution of the detected Lyα emitters implies the presence of a potential highly ionized region at z ~ 7.55, which hosts four Lyα emitters within a ∼40 cMpc spatial separation. The prominence of this ionized region in our data set could explain our lower inferred value of X(HI), though our analysis is also sensitive to the chosen reference Lyα EW distribution values and reionization models.

We present a WFC3 F160W (H-band) selected catalog in the CANDELS/GOODS-N field containing photometry from the ultraviolet (UV) to the far-infrared (IR), photometric redshifts and stellar pa-rameters derived from the analysis of the multi-wavelength data. The catalog contains 35,445 sourcesover the 171 arcmin2of the CANDELS F160W mosaic. The 5σdetection limits (within an aperture ofradius 0.′′17) of the mosaic range betweenH= 27.8, 28.2 and 28.7 in the wide, intermediate and deepregions, that span approximately 50%, 15% and 35% of the total area. The multi-wavelength photom-etry includes broad-band data from UV (U band from KPNO and LBC), optical (HST/ACS F435W,F606W, F775W, F814W, and F850LP), near-to-mid IR (HST/WFC3 F105W, F125W, F140W andF160W, Subaru/MOIRCS Ks, CFHT/Megacam K, andSpitzer/IRAC 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8.0μm) and far IR(Spitzer/MIPS 24μm, HERSCHEL/PACS 100 and 160μm, SPIRE 250, 350 and 500μm) observations.In addition, the catalog also includes, optical medium-band data (R∼50) in 25 consecutive bands,λ= 500 to 950 nm, from the SHARDS survey and WFC3 IR spectroscopic observations with theG102 and G141 grisms (R∼210 and 130). The use of higher spectral resolution data to estimate pho-tometric redshifts provides very high, and nearly uniform, precision fromz= 0−2.5. The comparisonto 1,485 good quality spectroscopic redshifts up toz∼3 yields ∆z/(1+zspec)=0.0032 and an outlierfraction ofη=4.3%. In addition to the multi-band photometry, we release added-value catalogs withemission line fluxes, stellar masses, dust attenuations, UV- and IR-based star formation rates andrest-frame colors.

Realizing the utility of Lyα emission to trace the evolution of the intergalactic medium (IGM) during the epoch of reionization requires deep spectroscopy across the boundary of optical and near-infrared (NIR) spectrographs at z ∼ 7.2 when Lyα emission is at ∼1 μm. Our Texas Spectroscopic Search for Lyα Emission at the End of Reionization includes 18 nights of deep spectroscopic observations using the Keck DEIMOS (optical) and MOSFIRE (NIR) spectrographs. Within this data set we observe Lyα emission from 183 photometric-redshift-selected galaxies at z = 5.5–8.3 from the Cosmic Assembly Near infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey. Our overlapping MOSFIRE observations, over 84 galaxies in total, provide the deepest NIR spectroscopic data yet obtained for Lyα from galaxies z > 7, with >16 hr integration time for four observed galaxies. Here we analyze these four targets, and we report the discovery of a new z = 7.60 Lyα detection as well as provide an updated observation of the previously confirmed z = 7.51 Lyα emission from Finkelstein et al. with a ∼3× longer exposure time. Our analysis of these Lyα emission-line profiles reveals a significant asymmetric shape. The detection of Lyα from two out of three bright sources (MUV < −20.25) could imply that these bright galaxies inhabit ionized bubbles in a partially neutral IGM, although deeper exposures may reveal Lyα emission in the fainter source.