Affiliation: University of Edinburgh

Contribution: Oral

Title: Evolution of Lyman-α emitters in rapid and gradual reionization histories out to redshift 14

Abstract: Observations of Lyman-α emission in the spectra of high redshift galaxies are a sensitive probe of the process of reionization. When large amounts of neutral gas are present in the foreground of the galaxies, the Lyman-α photons can be completely scattered out of our line of sight. Unexpectedly, JWST has now observed Lyman-α emission out to redshift 10.6, at a time when the Universe is expected to still expected to be significantly neutral. However, the interpretation of the observations is complicated by the morphology of reionization. Ionizing photons from the galaxies themselves are expected to ionize their local surroundings early on, allowing for transmission of Lyman-α emission even while reionization is ongoing. In this talk, I will present models for the evolution of the visibility of Lyman-α emitting galaxies in cosmological simulations of inhomogeneous reionization. I will explore both rapid and gradual reionization histories, contrasting the results with existing JWST observations and making predictions for what may be observed in future surveys pushing to higher redshifts.

This contribution can be found here (pdf) when available.