Search

While low-luminosity galaxies dominate number counts at all redshifts, their contribution to cosmic reionization is poorly understood due to a lack of knowledge of their physical properties. We isolate a sample of 35 z ≈ 4–5 continuum-faint Lyman-α emitters from deep VLT/MUSE spectroscopy and directly measure their H α emission using stacked Spitzer/IRAC Ch. 1 photometry. Based on Hubble Space Telescope imaging, we determine that the average UV continuum magnitude is fainter than −16 (≈ 0.01 L⋆), implying a median Lyman-α equivalent width of 259 Å. By combining the H α measurement with the UV magnitude, we determine the ionizing photon production efficiency, ξion, a first for such faint galaxies. The measurement of log10 (ξion [Hz erg−1]) = 26.28 (+0.28−0.40) is in excess of literature measurements of both continuum- and emission line-selected samples, implying a more efficient production of ionizing photons in these lower luminosity, Lyman-α-selected systems. We conclude that this elevated efficiency can be explained by stellar populations with metallicities between 4 × 10−4 and 0.008, with light-weighted ages less than 3 Myr., Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 493 (4), ISSN:0035-8711, ISSN:1365-2966, ISSN:1365-8711

We present a study of the intersection between the populations of star forming galaxies selected as either Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) or Lyman-alpha emitters (LAEs) in the redshift range 2.9 − 6.7 and within the same volume of universe sampled by the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) behind the Hubble Frontier Fields lensing cluster A2744. We define three samples of star-forming galaxies: LBG galaxies with an LAE counterpart (92 galaxies), LBG galaxies without an LAE counterpart (408 galaxies), and LAE galaxies without an LBG counterpart (46 galaxies). All these galaxies are intrinsically faint because of the lensing nature of the sample (M1500 ≥ −20.5). The fraction of LAEs among all selected star-forming galaxies increases with redshift up to z ∼ 6 and decreases for higher redshifts, in agreement with previous findings. The evolution of LAE/LBG populations with UV magnitude and Lyα luminosity shows that the LAE selection is able to identify intrinsically UV faint galaxies with M1500 ≥ −15 that are typically missed in the deepest lensing photometric surveys. The LBG population seems to fairly represent the total population of star-forming galaxies down to M1500 ∼ −15. Galaxies with M1500 Lyα uv, whereas the opposite trend is observed within our sample for faint galaxies with M1500 > −17, including galaxies only detected by their Lyα emission, with a large scatter. These trends, previously observed in other samples of star-forming galaxies at high-z, are seen here for very faint M1500 ∼ −15 galaxies; that is, much fainter than in previous studies. The present results show no clear evidence for an intrinsic difference between the properties of the two populations selected as LBG and/or LAE. The observed trends could be explained by a combination of several phenomena, like the existence of different star-formation regimes, the dust content, the relative distribution and morphology of dust and stars, or the stellar populations.

We make use of the ALMA twenty-Six Arcmin2 survey of GOODS-S At One-millimeter (ASAGAO), deep 1.2 mm continuum observations of a 26-arcmin2 region in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-South (GOODS-S) obtained with Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA), to probe dust-enshrouded star formation in K-band selected (i.e., stellar mass selected) galaxies, which are drawn from the FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE) catalog. Based on the ASAGAO combined map, which was created by combining ASAGAO and ALMA archival data in the GOODS-South field, we find that 24 ZFOURGE sources have 1.2 mm counterparts with a signal-to-noise ratio >4.5 (1σ ≃ 30–70 μJy beam−1 at 1.2 mm). Their median redshift is estimated to be zmedian = 2.38 ± 0.14. They generally follow the tight relationship of the stellar mass versus star formation rate (i.e., the main sequence of star-forming galaxies). ALMA-detected ZFOURGE sources exhibit systematically larger infrared (IR) excess (IRX ≡ LIR/LUV) compared to ZFOURGE galaxies without ALMA detections even though they have similar redshifts, stellar masses, and star formation rates. This implies the consensus stellar-mass versus IRX relation, which is known to be tight among rest-frame-ultraviolet-selected galaxies, cannot fully predict the ALMA detectability of stellar-mass-selected galaxies. We find that ALMA-detected ZFOURGE sources are the main contributors to the cosmic IR star formation rate density at z = 2–3.

The Lya emitter (LAE) fraction, X_LAE, is a potentially powerful probe of the evolution of the intergalactic neutral hydrogen gas fraction. However, uncertainties in the measurement of X_LAE are still debated. Thanks to deep data obtained with MUSE, we can measure the evolution of X_LAE homogeneously over a wide redshift range of z~3-6 for UV-faint galaxies (down to M_1500~-17.75). This is significantly fainter than in former studies, and allows us to probe the bulk of the population of high-z star-forming galaxies. We construct a UV-complete photo-redshift sample following UV luminosity functions and measure the Lya emission with MUSE using the second data release from the MUSE HUDF Survey. We derive the redshift evolution of X_LAE for M_1500 in [-21.75;-17.75] for the first time with a equivalent width range EW(Lya)>=65 A and find low values of X_ LAE~50 A at z~3-4, in contrast with previous work. The differences in X_LAE mainly arise from selection biases for Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs) in the literature: UV-faint LBGs are more easily selected if they have strong Lya emission, hence X_LAE is biased towards higher values. Our results suggest either a lower increase of X_LAE towards z~6 than previously suggested, or even a turnover of X_LAE at z~5.5, which may be the signature of a late or patchy reionization process. We compared our results with predictions from a cosmological galaxy evolution model. We find that a model with a bursty star formation (SF) can reproduce our observed X_LAE much better than models where SF is a smooth function of time., Comment: 25 pages, 17 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in A&A

To determine the dominant sources for cosmic reionization, the evolution history of the global ionizing fraction, and the topology of the ionized regions, we have conducted a deep imaging survey using four narrow-band (NB) and one intermediate-band (IB) filters on the Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC), called Cosmic HydrOgen Reionization Unveiled with Subaru (CHORUS). The central wavelengths and full-widths-at-half-maximum of the CHORUS filters are, respectively, 386.2 nm and 5.5 nm for NB387, 526.0 nm and 7.9 nm for NB527, 717.1 nm and 11.1 nm for NB718, 946.2 nm and 33.0 nm for IB945, and 971.2 nm and 11.2 nm for NB973. This combination, including NB921 (921.5 nm and 13.5 nm) from the Subaru Strategic Program with HSC (HSC SSP), are carefully designed, as if they were playing a chorus, to observe multiple spectral features simultaneously, such as Lyman continuum, Ly$\alpha$, C~{\sc iv}, and He~{\sc ii} for $z=2$--$7$. The observing field is the same as that of the deepest footprint of the HSC SSP in the COSMOS field and its effective area is about 1.6 deg$^2$. Here, we present an overview of the CHORUS project, which includes descriptions of the filter design philosophy, observations and data reduction, multiband photometric catalogs, assessments of the imaging quality, measurements of the number counts, and example use cases of the data. All the imaging data, photometric catalogs, masked pixel images, data of limiting magnitudes and point spread functions, results of completeness simulations, and source number counts are publicly available through the HSC SSP database., Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, PASJ open access (https://academic.oup.com/pasj/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/pasj/psaa100/5959796), all the data products are available at https://hsc-release.mtk.nao.ac.jp/doc/index.php/chorus

We present Keck/LRIS follow-up spectroscopy for 13 photometric candidates of extremely metal-poor galaxies (EMPGs) selected by a machine-learning technique applied to the deep (∼26 AB mag) optical and wide-area (∼500 deg2) Subaru imaging data in the EMPRESS survey. Nine out of the 13 candidates are EMPGs with an oxygen abundance (O/H) less than ∼10% solar value (O/H)⊙, and four sources are contaminants of moderately metal-rich galaxies or no emission-line objects. Notably, two out of the nine EMPGs have extremely low stellar masses and oxygen abundances of 5 × 104–7 × 105 M ⊙ and 2%–3% (O/H)⊙, respectively. With a sample of five EMPGs with (Fe/O) measurements, two (three) of which are taken from this study (the literature), we confirm that two EMPGs with the lowest (O/H) ratios of ∼2% (O/H)⊙ show high (Fe/O) ratios of ∼0.1, close to the solar abundance ratio. Comparing galaxy chemical enrichment models, we find that the two EMPGs cannot be explained by a scenario of metal-poor gas accretion/episodic star formation history due to their low (N/O) ratios. We conclude that the two EMPGs can be reproduced by the inclusion of bright hypernovae and/or hypothetical pair-instability supernovae (SNe) preferentially produced in a metal-poor environment. This conclusion implies that primordial galaxies at z ∼ 10 could have a high abundance of Fe that did not originate from Type Ia SNe with delays and that Fe may not serve as a cosmic clock for primordial galaxies.

We present results of the cross-correlation Ly$\alpha$ intensity mapping with Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) ultra-deep narrowband images and Ly$\alpha$ emitters (LAEs) at $z=5.7$ and $6.6$ in a total area of $4$ deg$^2$. Although overwhelming amount of data quality controls have been performed for the narrowband images, we further conduct extensive analysis evaluating systematics of large-scale point-spread-function wings, sky subtractions, and unknown errors based on physically uncorrelated signals and sources found in real HSC images and object catalogs, respectively. Removing the systematics, we carefully calculate cross-correlations between Ly$\alpha$ intensity of the narrowband images and the LAEs. We tentatively identify very diffuse Ly$\alpha$ emission with the $\simeq 3\sigma$ ($\simeq 2\sigma$) significance at $\gtrsim$ 100 comoving kpc (ckpc) far from the LAEs at $z=5.7$ ($6.6$), around and probably even beyond a virial radius of star-forming galaxies with $M_\mathrm{h}\sim10^{11}M_\odot$. The diffuse Ly$\alpha$ emission possibly extends up to $1$,$000$ ckpc with the surface brightness of $10^{-20}$-$10^{-19}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ arcsec$^{-2}$. We confirm that the small-scale ($, Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

We report the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) discovery of two Ly$\alpha$ blobs (LABs), dubbed z70-1 and z49-1 at $z=6.965$ and $z=4.888$ respectively, that are Ly$\alpha$ emitters with a bright ($\log L_{\rm Ly\alpha}/{\rm [erg\ s^{-1}]}>43.4$) and spatially-extended Ly$\alpha$ emission, and present the photometric and spectroscopic properties of a total of seven LABs; the two new LABs and five previously-known LABs at $z=5.7-6.6$. The z70-1 LAB shows the extended Ly$\alpha$ emission with a scale length of $1.4\pm 0.2$ kpc, about three times larger than the UV continuum emission, making z70-1 the most distant LAB identified to date. All of the 7 LABs, except z49-1, exhibit no AGN signatures such as X-ray emission, {\sc Nv}$\lambda$1240 emission, or Ly$\alpha$ line broadening, while z49-1 has a strong {\sc Civ}$\lambda$1548 emission line indicating an AGN on the basis of the UV-line ratio diagnostics. We carefully model the point-spread functions of the HSC images, and conduct two-component exponential profile fitting to the extended Ly$\alpha$ emission of the LABs. The Ly$\alpha$ scale lengths of the core (star-forming region) and the halo components are $r_{\rm c}=0.6-1.2$ kpc and $r_{\rm h}=2.0-13.8$ kpc, respectively. The average $r_{\rm h}$ of the LABs falls on the extrapolation of the $r_{\rm h}$-Ly$\alpha$ luminosity relation of the Ly$\alpha$ halos around VLT/MUSE star-forming galaxies at the similar redshifts, suggesting that typical LABs at $z\gtrsim5$ are not special objects, but star-forming galaxies at the bright end., Comment: Submitted to ApJ

We report detections of two 1.2 mm continuum sources (S 1.2 mm ∼ 0.6 mJy) without any counterparts in the deep H- and/or K-band image (i.e., K-band magnitude ≳26 mag). These near-infrared-dark faint millimeter sources are uncovered by ASAGAO, a deep and wide-field (≃26 arcmin2) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) 1.2 mm survey. One has a red IRAC (3.6 and 4.5 μm) counterpart, and the other has been independently detected at 850 and 870 μm using SCUBA2 and ALMA Band 7, respectively. Their optical-to-radio spectral energy distributions indicate that they can lie at z ≳ 3–5 and can be in the early phase of massive galaxy formation. Their contribution to the cosmic star formation rate density is estimated to be ∼1 × 10‑3 M ⊙ yr‑1 Mpc‑3 if they lie somewhere in the redshift range of z ∼ 3–5. This value can be consistent with, or greater than, that of bright submillimeter galaxies (S 870 μm > 4.2 mJy) at z ∼ 3–5. We also uncover three more candidate near-infrared-dark faint ALMA sources without any counterparts (S 1.2 mm ∼ 0.45–0.86 mJy). These results show that an unbiased ALMA survey can reveal the dust-obscured star formation activities, which were missed in previous deep optical/near-infrared surveys.

We present element abundance ratios and ionizing radiation of local young low-mass (∼106 M ⊙) extremely metal-poor galaxies (EMPGs) with a 2% solar oxygen abundance (O/H)⊙ and a high specific star formation rate (sSFR ∼ 300 Gyr−1) and other (extremely) metal-poor galaxies, which are compiled from Extremely Metal-Poor Representatives Explored by the Subaru Survey (EMPRESS) and the literature. Weak emission lines such as [Fe iii] λ4658 and He ii λ4686 are detected in very deep optical spectra of the EMPGs taken with 8 m class telescopes, including Keck and Subaru, enabling us to derive element abundance ratios with photoionization models. We find that neon-to-oxygen and argon-to-oxygen ratios are comparable to those of known local dwarf galaxies and that the nitrogen-to-oxygen abundance ratios (N/O) are lower than 20% (N/O)⊙, consistent with the low oxygen abundance. However, the iron-to-oxygen abundance ratios (Fe/O) of the EMPGs are generally high; the EMPGs with the 2%-solar oxygen abundance show high Fe/O ratios of ∼90%–140% (Fe/O)⊙, which are unlikely to be explained by suggested scenarios of Type Ia supernova iron productions, iron’s dust depletion, and metal-poor gas inflow onto previously metal-riched galaxies with solar abundances. Moreover, the EMPGs with the 2%-solar oxygen abundance have very high He ii λ4686/Hβ ratios of ∼1/40, which are not reproduced by existing models of high-mass X-ray binaries with progenitor stellar masses M ⊙. Comparing stellar-nucleosynthesis and photoionization models with a comprehensive sample of EMPGs identified by this and previous EMPG studies, we propose that both the high Fe/O ratios and the high He ii λ4686/Hβ ratios are explained by the past existence of supermassive (>300 M ⊙) stars, which may evolve into intermediate-mass black holes (≳100 M ⊙).

We investigate the ultraviolet (UV) spectral properties of faint Lyman-$\alpha$ emitters (LAEs) in the redshift range 2.93. We compute various averaged spectra of LAEs sub-sampled on the basis of their observational (e.g., Ly$\alpha$ strength, UV magnitude and spectral slope) and physical (e.g., stellar mass and star-formation rate) properties. We search for UV spectral features other than Ly$\alpha$, such as higher-ionization nebular emission lines and absorption features. We successfully observe the OIII]1666 and CIII]909 collisionally excited emission lines and the HeII1640 recombination feature, as well as the resonant CIV1550 doublet either in emission or P-Cygni. We compare the observed spectral properties of the different mean spectra and find the emission lines to vary with the observational and physical properties of the LAEs. In particular, the mean spectra of LAEs with larger Ly$\alpha$ equivalent widths, fainter UV magnitudes, bluer UV spectral slopes and lower stellar masses show the strongest nebular emission. The line ratios of these lines are similar to those measured in the spectra of local metal-poor galaxies, while their equivalent widths are weaker compared to the handful of extreme values detected in individual spectra of z>2 galaxies. This suggests that weak UV features are likely ubiquitous in high z, low-mass and faint LAEs. We publicly release the stacked spectra as they can serve as empirical templates for the design of future observations, such as those with the James Webb Space Telescope and the Extremely Large Telescope., Comment: 26 pages, 18 figures. Accepted for publication in A&A

We have initiated a new survey for local extremely metal-poor galaxies (EMPGs) with Subaru/Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) large-area (~500 deg^2) optical images reaching a 5 sigma limit of ~26 magnitude, about 100 times deeper than the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). To select Z/Z_sun6 reported recently. We spectroscopically confirm that 3 out of 10 candidates are truly EMPGs with Z/Z_sun, Comment: 30 pages, 26 figures, and 8 tables; (Revision: metallicities changed due to the use of a more pricise dust correction method, but conclusion does not change, Minor: a table, some figures, and sentences are added for a clear explanation.)

We present spatially resolved maps of six individually-detected Lyman alpha haloes (LAHs) as well as a first statistical analysis of the Lyman alpha (Lya) spectral signature in the circum-galactic medium of high-redshift star-forming galaxies using MUSE. Our resolved spectroscopic analysis of the LAHs reveals significant intrahalo variations of the Lya line profile. Using a three-dimensional two-component model for the Lya emission, we measure the full width at half maximum (FWHM), the peak velocity shift and the asymmetry of the Lya line in the core and in the halo of 19 galaxies. We find that the Lya line shape is statistically different in the halo compared to the core for ~40% of our galaxies. Similarly to object-by-object based studies and a recent resolved study using lensing, we find a correlation between the peak velocity shift and the width of the Lya line both at the interstellar and circum-galactic scales. While there is a lack of correlation between the spectral properties and the spatial scale lengths of our LAHs, we find a correlation between the width of the line in the LAH and the halo flux fraction. Interestingly, UV bright galaxies show broader, more redshifted and less asymmetric Lya lines in their haloes. The most significant correlation found is for the FWHM of the line and the UV continuum slope of the galaxy, suggesting that the redder galaxies have broader Lya lines. The generally broad and red line shapes found in the halo component suggests that the Lya haloes are powered either by scattering processes through an outflowing medium, fluorescent emission from outflowing cold clumps of gas, or a mix of both. Considering the large diversity of the Lya line profiles observed in our sample and the lack of strong correlation, the interpretation of our results is still broadly open and underlines the need for realistic spatially resolved models of the LAHs., Comment: 17+4 pages, 12+3 figures, 2+1 tables, accepted for publication in A&A

We present the Ly$\alpha$ luminosity function (LF) derived from 34 Ly$\alpha$ emitters (LAEs) at $z=7.0$ on the sky of $3.1$ deg$^2$, the largest sample compared to those in the literature obtained at a redshift $z\gtrsim7$. The LAE sample is made by deep large-area Subaru narrowband observations conducted by the Cosmic HydrOgen Reionization Unveiled with Subaru (CHORUS) project. The $z=7.0$ Ly$\alpha$ LF of our project is consistent with those of the previous DECam and Subaru studies at the bright and faint ends, respectively, while our $z=7.0$ Ly$\alpha$ LF has uncertainties significantly smaller than those of the previous study results. Exploiting the small errors of our measurements, we investigate the shape of the faint to bright-end Ly$\alpha$ LF. We find that the $z=7.0$ Ly$\alpha$ LF shape can be explained by the steep slope of $\alpha \simeq -2.5$ suggested at $z=6.6$, and that there is no clear signature of a bright-end excess at $z\simeq 7$ claimed by the previous work, which was thought to be made by the ionized bubbles around bright LAEs whose Ly$\alpha$ photons could easily escape from the partly neutral IGM at $z \simeq 7$. We estimate the Ly$\alpha$ luminosity densities (LDs) with Ly$\alpha$ LFs at $z\simeq 6-8$ given by our and the previous studies, and compare the evolution of the UV-continuum LD estimated with dropouts. The Ly$\alpha$ LD monotonically decreases from $z\sim 6$ to $8$, and evolves stronger than the UV-continuum LD, indicative of the Ly$\alpha$ damping wing absorption of the IGM towards the heart of the reionization epoch., Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures, accepted in ApJ

The survey of Lyman $\alpha$ emitters (LAEs) with Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam, called SILVERRUSH (Ouchi et al.), is producing massive data of LAEs at $z\gtrsim6$. Here we present LAE simulations to compare the SILVERRUSH data. In 162$^3$ comoving Mpc$^3$ boxes, where numerical radiative transfer calculations of reionization were performed, LAEs have been modeled with physically motivated analytic recipes as a function of halo mass. We have examined $2^3$ models depending on the presence or absence of dispersion of halo Ly$\alpha$ emissivity, dispersion of the halo Ly$\alpha$ optical depth, $\tau_\alpha$, and halo mass dependence of $\tau_\alpha$. The unique free parameter in our model, a pivot value of $\tau_\alpha$, is calibrated so as to reproduce the $z=5.7$ Ly$\alpha$ luminosity function (LF). We compare our model predictions with Ly$\alpha$ LFs at $z=6.6$ and $7.3$, LAE angular auto-correlation functions (ACFs) at $z=5.7$ and $6.6$, and LAE fractions in Lyman break galaxies at $5, Comment: PASJ in press, 30 pages, 20 figures

We present average stellar population properties and dark matter halo masses of $z \sim 2$ \lya emitters (LAEs) from SED fitting and clustering analysis, respectively, using $\simeq$ $1250$ objects ($NB387\le25.5$) in four separate fields of $\simeq 1$ deg$^2$ in total. With an average stellar mass of $10.2\, \pm\, 1.8\times 10^8\ {\mathrm M_\odot}$ and star formation rate of $3.4\, \pm\, 0.4\ {\mathrm M_\odot}\ {\rm yr^{-1}}$, the LAEs lie on an extrapolation of the star-formation main sequence (MS) to low stellar mass. Their effective dark matter halo mass is estimated to be $4.0_{-2.9}^{+5.1} \times 10^{10}\ {\mathrm M_\odot}$ with an effective bias of $1.22^{+0.16}_{-0.18}$ which is lower than that of $z \sim 2$ LAEs ($1.8\, \pm\, 0.3$), obtained by a previous study based on a three times smaller survey area, with a probability of $96\%$. However, the difference in the bias values can be explained if cosmic variance is taken into account. If such a low halo mass implies a low HI gas mass, this result appears to be consistent with the observations of a high \lya escape fraction. With the low halo masses and ongoing star formation, our LAEs have a relatively high stellar-to-halo mass ratio (SHMR) and a high efficiency of converting baryons into stars. The extended Press-Schechter formalism predicts that at $z=0$ our LAEs are typically embedded in halos with masses similar to that of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC); they will also have similar SHMRs to the LMC, if their SFRs are largely suppressed after $z \sim 2$ as some previous studies have reported for the LMC itself., 34 pages, 15 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in PASJ

We present an unprecedentedly large catalog consisting of 2,230 > L* Lya emitters (LAEs) at z=5.7 and 6.6 on the 13.8 and 21.2 deg2 sky, respectively, that are identified by the SILVERRUSH program with the first narrowband imaging data of the Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) survey. We confirm that the LAE catalog is reliable on the basis of 96 LAEs whose spectroscopic redshifts are already determined by this program and the previous studies. This catalogue is also available on-line. Based on this catalogue, we derive the rest-frame Lya equivalent-width distributions of LAEs at z~5.7-6.6 that are reasonably explained by the exponential profiles with the scale lengths of ~120-170A, showing no significant evolution from z~5.7 to z~6.6. We find that 275 LAEs with a large equivalent width (LEW) of >240A are candidates of young-metal poor galaxies and AGNs. We also find that the fraction of LEW LAEs to all ones is 4% and 21% at z~5.7 and z~6.6, respectively. Our LAE catalog includes 11 Lya blobs (LABs) that are LAEs with spatially extended Lya emission whose profile is clearly distinguished from those of stellar objects at the >~ 3sigma level. The number density of the LABs at z=6-7 is ~ 10^-7-10^-6 Mpc^-3, being ~ 10-100 times lower than those claimed for LABs at z~ 2-3, suggestive of disappearing LABs at z>~6, albeit with the different selection methods and criteria for the low and high-z LABs., 19 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in PASJ special issue

We present Lya and UV-nebular emission line properties of bright Lya emitters (LAEs) at z=6-7 with a luminosity of log L_Lya/[erg s-1] = 43-44 identified in the 21-deg2 area of the SILVERRUSH early sample developed with the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) survey data. Our optical spectroscopy newly confirm 21 bright LAEs with clear Lya emission, and contribute to make a spectroscopic sample of 96 LAEs at z=6-7 in SILVERRUSH. From the spectroscopic sample, we select 7 remarkable LAEs as bright as Himiko and CR7 objects, and perform deep Keck/MOSFIRE and Subaru/nuMOIRCS near-infrared spectroscopy reaching the 3sigma-flux limit of ~ 2x10^{-18} erg s-1 for the UV-nebular emission lines of He II1640, C IV1548,1550, and O III]1661,1666. Except for one tentative detection of C IV, we find no strong UV-nebular lines down to the flux limit, placing the upper limits of the rest-frame equivalent widths (EW_0) of ~2-4 A for He II, C IV, and O III] lines. Here we also investigate the VLT/X-SHOOTER spectrum of CR7 whose 6 sigma detection of He II is claimed by Sobral et al. Although two individuals and the ESO-archive service carefully re-analyze the X-SHOOTER data that are used in the study of Sobral et al., no He II signal of CR7 is detected, supportive of weak UV-nebular lines of the bright LAEs even for CR7. Spectral properties of these bright LAEs are thus clearly different from those of faint dropouts at z~7 that have strong UV-nebular lines shown in the various studies. Comparing these bright LAEs and the faint dropouts, we find anti-correlations between the UV-nebular line EW_0 and UV-continuum luminosity, which are similar to those found at z~2-3., Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in PASJ special issue

Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) is a wide-field imaging camera on the prime focus of the 8.2m Subaru telescope on the summit of Maunakea in Hawaii. A team of scientists from Japan, Taiwan and Princeton University is using HSC to carry out a 300-night multi-band imaging survey of the high-latitude sky. The survey includes three layers: the Wide layer will cover 1400 deg$^2$ in five broad bands ($grizy$), with a $5\,\sigma$ point-source depth of $r \approx 26$. The Deep layer covers a total of 26~deg$^2$ in four fields, going roughly a magnitude fainter, while the UltraDeep layer goes almost a magnitude fainter still in two pointings of HSC (a total of 3.5 deg$^2$). Here we describe the instrument, the science goals of the survey, and the survey strategy and data processing. This paper serves as an introduction to a special issue of the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan, which includes a large number of technical and scientific papers describing results from the early phases of this survey., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, 5 tables. Corrected for a typo in the coordinates of HSC-Wide spring equatorial field in Table 5

The Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program (HSC-SSP) is a three-layered imaging survey aimed at addressing some of the most outstanding questions in astronomy today, including the nature of dark matter and dark energy. The survey has been awarded 300 nights of observing time at the Subaru Telescope and it started in March 2014. This paper presents the first public data release of HSC-SSP. This release includes data taken in the first 1.7 years of observations (61.5 nights) and each of the Wide, Deep, and UltraDeep layers covers about 108, 26, and 4 square degrees down to depths of i~26.4, ~26.5, and ~27.0 mag, respectively (5sigma for point sources). All the layers are observed in five broad bands (grizy), and the Deep and UltraDeep layers are observed in narrow bands as well. We achieve an impressive image quality of 0.6 arcsec in the i-band in the Wide layer. We show that we achieve 1-2 per cent PSF photometry (rms) both internally and externally (against Pan-STARRS1), and ~10 mas and 40 mas internal and external astrometric accuracy, respectively. Both the calibrated images and catalogs are made available to the community through dedicated user interfaces and database servers. In addition to the pipeline products, we also provide value-added products such as photometric redshifts and a collection of public spectroscopic redshifts. Detailed descriptions of all the data can be found online. The data release website is https://hsc-release.mtk.nao.ac.jp/., 34 pages, 20 figures, 7 tables, moderate revision, accepted for publication in PASJ

We present Keck/MOSFIRE spectra of the diagnostic nebular emission lines [OIII]5007,4959, [OII]3727, and H-beta for a sample of 15 redshift z=3.1-3.7 Ly-alpha emitters (LAEs) and Lyman break galaxies (LBGs). In conjunction with spectra from other surveys, we confirm earlier indications that LAEs have a much higher [OIII]/[OII] line ratio than is seen in similar redshift LBGs. By comparing their distributions on a [OIII]/[OII] versus R23 diagram, we demonstrate that this difference cannot arise solely because of their lower metallicities but most likely is due to a harder ionizing spectrum. Using measures of H-beta and recombination theory, we demonstrate, for a subset of our LAEs, that xi_ion - the number of Lyman continuum photons per UV luminosity - is indeed 0.2-0.5 dex larger than for typical LBGs at similar redshifts. Using photoionization models we estimate the effect this would have on both [OIII]/[OII] and R23 and conclude such a hard spectrum can only partially explain such intense line emission. The additional possibility is that such a large [OIII]/[OII] ratio is in part due to density rather than ionization bound nebular regions, which would imply a high escape fraction of ionizing photons. We discuss how further observations could confirm this possibility. Clearly LAEs with intense [OIII] emission represent a promising analog of those z>7 sources with similarly strong lines which are thought to be an important contributor to cosmic reionization., 7 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

We present the Lya luminosity functions (LFs) derived by our deep Subaru narrowband survey that identifies a total of 3,137 Lya emitters (LAEs) at $z = 2.2$ in five independent blank fields. The sample of these LAEs is the largest, to date, and covers a very wide Lya luminosity range of $\log L_{Ly\alpha} = 41.7-44.4$ erg s$^{-1}$. We determine the Lya LF at $z = 2.2$ with unprecedented accuracies, and obtain the best-fit Schechter parameters of $L^{*}_{Ly\alpha} = 5.29^{+1.67}_{-1.13} \times 10^{42}$ erg s$^{-1}$, $\phi^{*}_{Ly\alpha} = 6.32^{+3.08}_{-2.31} \times 10^{-4}$ Mpc$^{-3}$, and $\alpha = -1.75^{+0.10}_{-0.09}$ showing a steep faint-end slope. We identify a significant hump at the LF bright end ($\log L_{Ly\alpha} > 43.4$ erg s$^{-1}$). Because all of the LAEs in the bright-end hump have (a) bright counterpart(s) either in the X-ray, UV, or radio data, this bright-end hump is not made by gravitational lensing magnification bias but AGNs. These AGNs allow us to derive the AGN UV LF at $z \sim 2$ down to the faint magnitude limit of $M_{UV} \simeq -22.5$, and to constrain the faint-end slope of AGN UV LF, $\alpha_{AGN}=-1.2 \pm 0.1$, that is flatter than those at $z > 4$. Based on the Lya and UV LFs from our and previous studies, we find the increase of Lya escape fraction $f^{Ly\alpha}_{esc}$ from $z \sim 0$ to $6$ by two orders of magnitude. This large $f^{Ly\alpha}_{esc}$ increase can be explained neither by the evolution of stellar population nor outflow alone, but the evolution of neutral hydrogen HI density in inter-stellar medium that enhances dust attenuation for Lya by resonance scattering. Our uniform expanding shell models suggest that the typical HI column density decreases from $N_{HI} \sim 7 \times 10^{19}$ ($z \sim 0$) to $\sim 1 \times 10^{18}$ cm$^{-2}$ ($z \sim 6$) to explain the large $f^{Ly\alpha}_{esc}$ increase., Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables, Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

The intensity of the Cosmic UV background (UVB), coming from all sources of ionising photons such as star-forming galaxies and quasars, determines the thermal evolution and ionization state of the intergalactic medium (IGM) and is, therefore, a critical ingredient for models of cosmic structure formation. Most of the previous estimates are based on the comparison between observed and simulated Lyman-$\alpha$ forest. We present the results of an independent method to constrain the product of the UVB photoionisation rate and the covering fraction of Lyman limit systems (LLSs) by searching for the fluorescent Lyman-$\alpha$ emission produced by self-shielded clouds. Because the expected surface brightness is well below current sensitivity limits for direct imaging, we developed a new method based on three-dimensional stacking of the IGM around Lyman-$\alpha$ emitting galaxies (LAEs) between 2.93 that are consistent with previous measurements, with a preference for relatively low UVB intensities at z=3, and which suggest a non-monotonic decrease of $\Gamma$HI with increasing redshift between 3, Comment: 19 pages, 17 figures, accepted on MNRAS