The Luminosity Function of Lyman Alpha Emitting Galaxies and Cosmic Reionisation of Hydrogen
Abstract
Recent observations imply that the observed number counts of Lyman Alpha (Lya) emitters evolved significantly between z=5.7 and z=6.5. It has been suggested that this evolution was due to a rapid evolution in the ionisation state, and hence transmission of the IGM which caused Lya flux from z=6.5 galaxies to be more strongly suppressed. In this paper we show that the observed evolution can be attributed entirely to the evolution in the mass function of dark matter halos housing the Lya emitters. We place constraints on the evolution of transmission in the IGM between z=6.5 and z=5.7, finding a ratio of ~1.2, which may be accounted for by the evolution of the mean IGM density through cosmic expansion. Using a model for IGM transmission, we demonstrate that Lya emitting galaxies at z=6.5 must be embedded in HII bubbles greater than 35x_HI comoving Mpc in size, where x_HI is the neutral fraction of hydrogen outside the ionised bubbles. The model of Furlanetto et al (2006) may be used to translate this into a lower limit of 80% for the ionised fraction of hydrogen by volume in the universe at z=6.5.Keywords
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