2004/07/20 by Sangeeta Malhotra, James E. Rhoads, James Rhoads · 6 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/427182
published as Astrophys.J.617:L5-L8,2004 · Submitted to Astrophysical Journal Letters
arxiv created 2004/07/20 · openalex publication_date 2004/11/11 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
The visibility of Lyα emission from galaxies should be suppressed substantially by a neutral intergalactic medium before reionization. Even after taking into account a local H II region produced by the galaxy and a velocity offset of Lyα, a factor of 3 attenuation in the line is unavoidable. We rule out such a suppression by comparing line luminosity functions of Lyα emitters at z = 6.5 and 5.7. The luminosity functions at z = 5.7 and z = 6.5 were constructed using published surveys over a range of depths and volumes. They constrain both characteristic luminosity L * and density ϕ * . The luminosity functions at the two redshifts are statistically consistent with one another, and only one survey lies substantially off the luminosity function. We conclude that reionization was largely complete at z ≈ 6.5.