The Universe is at Most 88% Neutral at z = 10.6

Sean Bruton; Yu-Heng Lin; Claudia Scarlata; Matthew J. Hayes

doi:10.3847/2041-8213/acd5d0

The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2023)

The Universe is at Most 88% Neutral at z = 10.6

Sean Bruton,
Yu-Heng Lin,
Claudia Scarlata,
Matthew J. Hayes

Affiliations

Sean Bruton: ORCiD; Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics, University of Minnesota , 116 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA ; [email protected]; School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota , 116 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Yu-Heng Lin: ORCiD; Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics, University of Minnesota , 116 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA ; [email protected]; School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota , 116 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Claudia Scarlata: ORCiD; Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics, University of Minnesota , 116 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA ; [email protected]; School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota , 116 Church St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Matthew J. Hayes: ORCiD; Stockholm University , Department of Astronomy and Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics, AlbaNova University Centre, SE-10691, Stockholm, Sweden

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/acd5d0
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 949, no. 2
p. L40

Abstract

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Recent observations of GN-z11 with JWST have revealed a Ly α emission line with an equivalent width (EW) of 18 ± 2 Å. At z = 10.6, this galaxy is expected to lie in the heart of reionization. We use a series of inhomogeneous reionization simulations to derive the distribution of the Ly α EW after traveling through the neutral intergalactic medium with varying average neutral gas fraction, x _H I . We use these distributions to place an upper limit of x _H I 8. We find that models in which faint galaxies have a higher escape fraction compared to bright galaxies are favored by the new data.

Published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters

ISSN: 2041-8205 (Print); 2041-8213 (Online)
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Science: Astronomy: Astrophysics
Website: https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/2041-8205

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