English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

We present a new flexible Bayesian framework for directly inferring thefraction of neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium (IGM) during the Epochof Reionization (EoR, z~6-10) from detections and non-detections of Lyman Alpha(Ly$\alpha$) emission from Lyman break galaxies (LBGs). Our framework combinessophisticated reionization simulations with empirical models of theinterstellar medium (ISM) radiative transfer effects on Ly$\alpha$. We assertthat the Ly$\alpha$ line profile emerging from the ISM has an important impacton the resulting transmission of photons through the IGM, and that these lineprofiles depend on galaxy properties. We model this effect by considering thepeak velocity offset of Ly$\alpha$ lines from host galaxies' systemicredshifts, which are empirically correlated with UV luminosity and redshift (orhalo mass at fixed redshift). We use our framework on the sample of LBGspresented in Pentericci et al. (2014) and infer a global neutral fraction atz~7 of $\overline{x}_\mathrm{HI} = 0.59_{-0.15}^{+0.11}$, consistent with otherrobust probes of the EoR and confirming reionization is on-going ~700 Myr afterthe Big Bang. We show that using the full distribution of Ly$\alpha$ equivalentwidth detections and upper limits from LBGs places tighter constraints on theevolving IGM than the standard Ly$\alpha$ emitter fraction, and that largersamples are within reach of deep spectroscopic surveys of gravitationallylensed fields and JWST NIRSpec.

The Universe is Reionizing at z~7: Bayesian Inference of the IGM Neutral Fraction Using Ly$\alpha$ Emission from Galaxies