A SPectroscopic Survey of Biased Halos In the Reionization Era (ASPIRE): JWST Supports Earlier Reionization around [O iii] Emitters
Abstract Understanding when and how reionization happened is crucial for studying the early structure formation and the properties of the first galaxies in the Universe. At z > 5.5, the observed intergalactic medium (IGM) optical depth shows a significant scatter, indicating an inhomogeneous reionization process. However, the nature of the inhomogeneous reionization remains debated. A SPectroscopic survey of biased halos In the Reionization Era (ASPIRE) is a JWST Cycle 1 program that has spectroscopically identified >400 [O iii ] emitters in 25 quasar fields at z > 6.5. Combined with deep ground-based optical spectroscopy of ASPIRE quasars, the ASPIRE program provides the current largest sample for IGM-galaxy connection studies during cosmic reionization. We present the first results of IGM effective optical depth measurements around [O iii ] emitters using 14 ASPIRE quasar fields. We find the IGM transmission is tightly related to reionization era galaxies to the extent that a significant excess of Ly α transmission exists around [O iii ] emitters. We measure the stacked IGM effective optical depth of IGM patches associated with [O iii ] emitters and find they reach the same IGM effective optical depth at least d z ∼ 0.1 ahead of those IGM patches where no [O iii ] emitters are detected, supporting earlier reionization around [O iii ] emitters. Our results indicate an enhancement in IGM Ly α transmission around [O iii ] emitters at scales beyond 25 h −1 cMpc, consistent with the predicted topology of reionization from fluctuating UV background models.
Authors
- Maria Pudoka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4924-5941)
- Fengwu Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4622-6617)
- Joseph F. Hennawi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7054-4332)
- Hyunsung D. Jun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1470-5901)
- Xiaohui Fan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3310-0131)
- Jinyi Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5287-4242)
- Yunjing Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0111-8249)
- Jaclyn B. Champagne (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6184-9097)
- R. A. Meyer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5492-4522)
- Sindhu Satyavolu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5818-6838)
- Xiangyu Jin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5768-738X)
- Siwei Zou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3983-6484)
- Feige Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7633-431X)
- Wei Leong Tee (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0747-1780)
- Anna–Christina Eilers (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2895-6218)
- Eduardo Bañados (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2931-7824)
- Koki Kakiichi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6874-1321)
- Weizhe Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3762-7344)
- Minghao Yue (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5367-8021)
- Sarah E. I. Bosman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8582-7012)
- Zheng Cai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8467-6478)
- V. D’Odorico (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3693-3091)
- George D. Becker (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2344-263X)
- Mingyu Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6251-649X)
- Zihao Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5951-459X)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Published
- 2024-11-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad82de
- Citations
- 9
- Primary Topic
- Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.98
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Space Telescope Science Institute
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Division of Astronomical Sciences