1. The Web Epoch of Reionization Lyman-$\alpha$ Survey (WERLS) I. MOSFIRE Spectroscopy of $\mathbf{z \sim 7-8}$ Lyman-$\alpha$ Emitters
- Author
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Cooper, Olivia R., Casey, Caitlin M., Akins, Hollis B., Magee, Jake, Melendez, Alfonso, Fong, Mia, Stawinski, Stephanie M. Urbano, Kartaltepe, Jeyhan S., Finkelstein, Steven L., Larson, Rebecca L., Jung, Intae, Bista, Ash, Champagne, Jaclyn B., Ortiz, Oscar A. Chavez, Coffin, Sadie, Cooper, M. C., Drakos, Nicole, Faisst, Andreas L., Franco, Maximilien, Fujimoto, Seiji, Gillman, Steven, Gozaliasl, Ghassem, Harish, Santosh, Hutchison, Taylor A., Koekemoer, Anton M., Kokorev, Vasily, Lertprasertpong, Jitrapon, Liu, Daizhong, Long, Arianna S., Papovich, Casey, Rich, R. Michael, Robertson, Brant E., Talia, Margherita, Vanderhoof, Brittany N., Whitaker, Katherine E., and Zavala, Jorge A.
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies - Abstract
We present the first results from the Web Epoch of Reionization Lyman-$\alpha$ Survey (WERLS), a spectroscopic survey of Lyman-$\alpha$ emission using Keck I/MOSFIRE and LRIS. WERLS targets bright ($J<26$) galaxy candidates with photometric redshifts of $5.5\lesssim z \lesssim 8$ selected from pre-JWST imaging embedded in the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) within three JWST deep fields: CEERS, PRIMER, and COSMOS-Web. Here, we report 11 $z\sim7-8$ Lyman-$\alpha$ emitters (LAEs; 3 secure and 8 tentative candidates) detected in the first five nights of WERLS MOSFIRE data. We estimate our observed LAE yield is $\sim13$%, broadly consistent with expectations assuming some loss from redshift uncertainty, contamination from sky OH lines, and that the Universe is approximately half-ionized at this epoch, whereby observable Lyman-$\alpha$ emission is unlikely for galaxies embedded in a neutral intergalactic medium. Our targets are selected to be UV-bright, and span a range of absolute UV magnitudes with $-23.1 < M_{\text{UV}} < -19.8$. With two LAEs detected at $z=7.68$, we also consider the possibility of an ionized bubble at this redshift. Future synergistic Keck+JWST efforts will provide a powerful tool for pinpointing beacons of reionization and mapping the large scale distribution of mass relative to the ionization state of the Universe., Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures; ApJ submitted
- Published
- 2023