The ionizing photon production efficiency at z ∼ 6 for Lyman-alpha emitters using JEMS and MUSE

Author:

Simmonds C12ORCID,Tacchella S12ORCID,Maseda M3ORCID,Williams C C45,Baker W M12ORCID,Witten C E C61ORCID,Johnson B D7,Robertson B8,Saxena A910ORCID,Sun F5,Witstok J12,Bhatawdekar R1112,Boyett K1314,Bunker A J9,Charlot S15,Curtis-Lake E16,Egami E5,Eisenstein D J7,Ji Z5,Maiolino R1210,Sandles L12,Smit R17,Übler H12,Willott C J18

Affiliation:

1. The Kavli Institute for Cosmology (KICC), University of Cambridge , Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0HA , UK

2. Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge , 19 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge, CB3 0HE , UK

3. Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin–Madison , 475 North Charter Street, Madison, WI 53706 , USA

4. NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory , 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719 , USA

5. Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721 , USA

6. Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge , Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA , UK

7. Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge MA 02138 , USA

8. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California , Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, CA 96054 , USA

9. Department of Physics, University of Oxford , Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3RH , UK

10. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London , Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT , UK

11. European Space Agency (ESA), European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) , Camino Bajo del Castillo s/n, 28692 Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid , Spain

12. European Space Agency, ESA/ESTEC , Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk , the Netherlands

13. School of Physics, University of Melbourne , Parkville, 3010 VIC , Australia

14. ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) , Canberra 2611, Australia

15. Sorbonne Université, CNRS, UMR 7095, Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris , 98 bis bd Arago, 75014 Paris , France

16. Centre for Astrophysics Research, Department of Physics, Astronomy and Mathematics, University of Hertfordshire , Hatfield AL10 9AB , UK

17. Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University , 146 Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L3 5RF , UK

18. NRC Herzberg , 5071 West Saanich Rd, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7 , Canada

Abstract

ABSTRACT We study the ionizing photon production efficiency at the end of the Epoch of Reionization (z ∼ 5.4 − 6.6) for a sample of 30 Ly α emitters. This is a crucial quantity to infer the ionizing photon budget of the universe. These objects were selected to have reliable spectroscopic redshifts, assigned based on the profile of their Ly α emission line, detected in the MUSE deep fields. We exploit medium-band observations from the JWST Extragalactic Medium-band Survey (JEMS) to find the flux excess corresponding to the redshifted Hα emission line. We estimate the ultraviolet (UV) luminosity by fitting the full JEMS photometry, along with several HST photometric points, with Prospector. We find a median UV continuum slope of $\beta = -2.09^{+0.23}_{-0.21}$, indicating young stellar populations with little-to-no dust attenuation. Supported by this, we derive ξion,0 with no dust attenuation and find a median value of log$\frac{\xi _{ion,0}}{\text{Hz erg}^{-1}} = 25.44^{+0.21}_{-0.15}$. If we perform dust attenuation corrections and assume a Calzetti attenuation law, our values are lowered by ∼0.1 dex. Our results suggest Ly α emitters at the Epoch of Reionization have slightly enhanced ξion,0 compared to previous estimations from literature, in particular, when compared to the non-Ly α emitting population. This initial study provides a promising outlook on the characterization of ionizing photon production in the early universe. In the future, a more extensive study will be performed on the entire data set provided by the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES). Thus, for the first time, allowing us to place constraints on the wider galaxy populations driving reionization.

Funder

NASA

Space Telescope Science Institute

National Science Foundation

European Research Council

Australian Research Council

Science and Technology Facilities Council

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Subject

Space and Planetary Science,Astronomy and Astrophysics

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