Abstract

Studying the environment around Lyman-alpha emitters during reionization with JWST

Micaela Bagley (University of Minnesota)

Claudia Scarlata (University of Minnesota); Alaina Henry (Space Telescope Science Institute); Marc Rafelski (Space Telescope Science Institute); Matthew Malkan (University of California, Los Angeles); Harry Teplitz (IPAC, California Institute of Technology); Y. Sophia. Dai (IPAC, California Institute of Technology); Ivano Baronchelli (IPAC, California Institute of Technology); James Colbert (IPAC, California Institute of Technology); Michael Rutkowski (University of Minnesota); Vihang Mehta (University of Minnesota); Alan Dressler (Carnegie Observatories); Patrick McCarthy (Carnegie Observatories); Crystal Martin (University of California, Santa Barbara); Nimish Hathi (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille); Andy Bunker (University of Oxford); Hakim Atek (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne)

With the HST WFC3 Infrared Spectroscopic Parallel (WISP) Survey, we have discovered two of the brightest Lyman-alpha emitters (LAEs) at z~6.5. We show that the WISP LAES likely reside in large ionized bubbles in the intergalactic medium (IGM). Although very bright, they are not capable of ionizing the IGM out to the distance required to allow Lyman-alpha photons to escape. A population of fainter ionizing sources is necessary. The supreme sensitivities of JWST-NIRCam and NIRSpec will allow for the detection and investigation of the fainter galaxies surrounding these and similar bright LAEs towards the end of reionization. JWST provides the opportunity to study the clustering of these sources and their contribution to reionization in the context of environment.

Mode of presentation: poster