Was the Universe Reionized at Redshift 10?

2004/03/08 by Abraham Loeb, Rennan Barkana, Lars Hernquist · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Flux (metallurgy) #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy formation and evolution #Intergalactic medium #Physics #Redshift #Reionization #Stars #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/427229

published as Astrophys.J. 620 (2005) 553-558 · 12 pages, 1 figure, ApJ, submitted

arxiv created 2004/03/08 · openalex publication_date 2005/02/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

Recently, Pello and coworkers claimed to have discovered a galaxy at a redshift z = 10 and identified a feature in its spectrum with a hydrogen Lyα emission line. If this identification is correct, we show that the intergalactic medium (IGM) around the galaxy must be significantly ionized; otherwise, the damping wing of Lyα absorption by the neutral IGM would have greatly suppressed the emission line. We find that either the large-scale region surrounding this galaxy must have been largely reionized by z = 10 (with a neutral fraction ≲0.4) or the stars within the galaxy must be massive (≳100 M ☉ ) and hence capable of producing a sufficiently large H II region around it. We generalize these conclusions and derive the maximum Lyα line flux for a given UV continuum flux of galaxies prior to the epoch of reionization.

Citations

• A Survey of [CLC][ITAL]z[/ITAL][/CLC] ] 5.7 Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. II. Discovery of Three Additional Quasars at [CLC][ITAL]z[/ITAL][/CLC] ] 6
• Large Equivalent Width L[CLC]y[/CLC]α line Emission at [FORMULA][F]z=4.5[/F][/FORMULA]: Young Galaxies in a Young Universe?
• Measuring the Small-Scale Power Spectrum of Cosmic Density Fluctuations through 21 cm Tomography Prior to the Epoch of Structure Formation
• The Detectability of High-Redshift L[CLC]y[/CLC]α Emission Lines prior to the Reionization of the Universe
• Three Ly Emitters at z 6: Early GMOS/Gemini Data from the GLARE Project
• Cosmological H II regions and the photoionization of the intergalactic medium
• An excursion set model of hierarchical clustering: ellipsoidal collapse and the moving barrier
• An analytical model for the history of cosmic star formation
• The history of star formation in a cold dark matter universe
• Starburst99: Synthesis Models for Galaxies with Active Star Formation
• Reionization of the Intergalactic Medium and the Damping Wing of the Gunn‐Peterson Trough
• Quasar Strömgren Spheres Before Cosmological Reionization
• The Growth of HiiRegions During Reionization
• Gamma‐Ray Bursts versus Quasars: Lyα Signatures of Reionization versus Cosmological Infall
• The Earliest Luminous Sources and the Damping Wing of the Gunn-Peterson Trough
• First‐Year Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe ( WMAP ) Observations: Determination of Cosmological Parameters
• Toward Epoch of Reionization Measurements with Wide‐Field Radio Observations
• Probing reionization with Lyman α emission lines

Cited by

• INTENSITY MAPPING WITH CARBON MONOXIDE EMISSION LINES AND THE REDSHIFTED 21 cm LINE