Lyman Alpha Galaxies from Z=5.7 to 6.96 with Subaru

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The census of Lyman-alpha emitters (LAEs) beyond z=6 puts a critical constraint on the reionization epoch.The Ly-alpha photons are absorbed when passing through the neutral IGM; therefore, it is naturally expected that the luminosity function (LF) of LAEs should decline as it traces earlier times in the reionization epoch. Consequently, the observed abundance of LAEs during the reionization period should indicate the neutral fraction of IGM hydrogen x_HI. We made a systematic search for Lyman-alpha emitters (LAEs) at z=5.7-7.0 in the Subaru Deep Field. These LAE sample were selected with the same criteria from a large homogeneous sample in a general field. Based on our photometric + spectroscopic LAE sample, we have derived a more accurate Ly-alpha LF of LAEs at z=6.5 ,which reveals an apparent deficit at the bright end, of 0.75 mag fainter L*, compared with that observed at z=5.7. The LF of the rest UV continuum, which is not sensitive to neutral IGM, of the LAE sample at z=6.5 is almost consistent with those of LAEs at z=5.7 and i-dropouts at z 6, even at their bright ends. This result may imply that the reionization of the universe has not been completed at z=6.5.
On the other hand, we have identified only one LAE at z 7 in the field. The number density of z=7 LAEs is only 17-34% of the density at z=6.6. This continuous decline in number densities of LAEs possibly suggests that the x_HI rapidly increases at z=5.7-7.0. The decline was found to be still significant even if we take into account the hierarchical buildup of galaxy evolution, which was evaluated from a standard semi-analytic model. We discuss the implications of these results for the reionization of the universe.

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