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Witnessing the onset of reionisation via Lyman-α emission at redshift 13

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arxiv 2408.16608 v4 pith:AHDFPCD5 submitted 2024-08-29 astro-ph.GA

Witnessing the onset of reionisation via Lyman-α emission at redshift 13

Joris Witstok , Peter Jakobsen , Roberto Maiolino , Jakob M. Helton , Benjamin D. Johnson , Brant E. Robertson , Sandro Tacchella , Alex J. Cameron
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Renske Smit Andrew J. Bunker Aayush Saxena Fengwu Sun Stacey Alberts Santiago Arribas William M. Baker Rachana Bhatawdekar Kristan Boyett Phillip A. Cargile Stefano Carniani St\'ephane Charlot Jacopo Chevallard Mirko Curti Emma Curtis-Lake Francesco D'Eugenio Daniel J. Eisenstein Kevin N. Hainline Gareth C. Jones Nimisha Kumari Michael V. Maseda Pablo G. P\'erez-Gonz\'alez Pierluigi Rinaldi Jan Scholtz Hannah \"Ubler Christina C. Williams Christopher N. A. Willmer Chris Willott Yongda Zhu
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classification astro-ph.GA
keywords alphaemissiongalaxiesmathrmredshiftreionisationgalaxyjwst
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$\require{mediawiki-texvc}$Cosmic Reionisation commenced when ultraviolet (UV) radiation produced in the first galaxies began illuminating the cold, neutral gas that filled the primordial Universe. Recent James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations have shown that surprisingly UV-bright galaxies were in place beyond redshift $z = 14$, when the Universe was less than $300 \, \mathrm{Myr}$ old. Smooth turnovers of their UV continua have been interpreted as damping-wing absorption of Lyman-$\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$), the principal hydrogen transition. However, spectral signatures encoding crucial properties of these sources, such as their emergent radiation field, largely remain elusive. Here we report spectroscopy from the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) of a galaxy at redshift $z = 13.0$ that reveal a singular, bright emission line unambiguously identified as Ly$\alpha$, in addition to a smooth turnover. We observe an equivalent width of $\text{EW}_\mathrm{Ly\alpha} > 40 \, \AA$ (rest frame), previously only seen at $z < 9$ where the intervening intergalactic medium (IGM) becomes increasingly ionised. Together with an extremely blue UV continuum, the unexpected Ly$\alpha$ emission indicates the galaxy is a prolific producer and leaker of ionising photons. This suggests massive, hot stars or an active galactic nucleus (AGN) have created an early reionised region to prevent complete extinction of Ly$\alpha$, thus shedding new light on the nature of the earliest galaxies and the onset of Reionisation only $330 \, \mathrm{Myr}$ after the Big Bang.

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Cited by 7 Pith papers

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