TY - JOUR
T1 - The Web Epoch of Reionization Lyα Survey (WERLS). I. MOSFIRE Spectroscopy of z ∼ 7-8 Lyα Emitters
AU - Cooper, Olivia R.
AU - Casey, Caitlin M.
AU - Akins, Hollis B.
AU - Magee, Jake
AU - Melendez, Alfonso
AU - Fong, Mia
AU - Urbano Stawinski, Stephanie M.
AU - Kartaltepe, Jeyhan S.
AU - Finkelstein, Steven L.
AU - Larson, Rebecca L.
AU - Jung, Intae
AU - Bista, Ash
AU - Champagne, Jaclyn B.
AU - Chavez Ortiz, Oscar A.
AU - Coffin, Sadie
AU - Cooper, M. C.
AU - Drakos, Nicole
AU - Faisst, Andreas L.
AU - Franco, Maximilien
AU - Fujimoto, Seiji
AU - Gillman, Steven
AU - Gozaliasl, Ghassem
AU - Harish, Santosh
AU - Hutchison, Taylor A.
AU - Koekemoer, Anton M.
AU - Kokorev, Vasily
AU - Lertprasertpong, Jitrapon
AU - Liu, Daizhong
AU - Long, Arianna S.
AU - Papovich, Casey
AU - Rich, R. Michael
AU - Robertson, Brant E.
AU - Talia, Margherita
AU - Vanderhoof, Brittany N.
AU - Weaver, John R.
AU - Whitaker, Katherine E.
AU - Zavala, Jorge A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
PY - 2024/7/1
Y1 - 2024/7/1
N2 - We present the first results from the Web Epoch of Reionization Lyα Survey (WERLS), a spectroscopic survey of Lyα emission using Keck I/MOSFIRE and LRIS. WERLS targets bright (J < 26) galaxy candidates with photometric redshifts of 5.5 ≲ z ≲ 8 selected from pre-JWST imaging embedded in the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) within three JWST deep fields: CEERS, PRIMER, and COSMOS-Web. Here, we report 11 z ∼ 7-8 Lyα emitters (LAEs; three secure and eight tentative candidates) detected in the first five nights of WERLS MOSFIRE data. We estimate our observed LAE yield is ∼13%, which is broadly consistent with expectations assuming some loss from redshift uncertainty, contamination from sky OH lines, and that the Universe is approximately half-ionized at this epoch, whereby observable Lyα emission is unlikely for galaxies embedded in a neutral intergalactic medium. Our targets are selected to be UV-bright, and span a range of absolute UV magnitudes with −23.1 < M UV < −19.8. With two LAEs detected at z = 7.68, we also consider the possibility of an ionized bubble at this redshift. Future synergistic Keck+JWST efforts will provide a powerful tool for pinpointing beacons of reionization and mapping the large-scale distribution of mass relative to the ionization state of the Universe.
AB - We present the first results from the Web Epoch of Reionization Lyα Survey (WERLS), a spectroscopic survey of Lyα emission using Keck I/MOSFIRE and LRIS. WERLS targets bright (J < 26) galaxy candidates with photometric redshifts of 5.5 ≲ z ≲ 8 selected from pre-JWST imaging embedded in the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) within three JWST deep fields: CEERS, PRIMER, and COSMOS-Web. Here, we report 11 z ∼ 7-8 Lyα emitters (LAEs; three secure and eight tentative candidates) detected in the first five nights of WERLS MOSFIRE data. We estimate our observed LAE yield is ∼13%, which is broadly consistent with expectations assuming some loss from redshift uncertainty, contamination from sky OH lines, and that the Universe is approximately half-ionized at this epoch, whereby observable Lyα emission is unlikely for galaxies embedded in a neutral intergalactic medium. Our targets are selected to be UV-bright, and span a range of absolute UV magnitudes with −23.1 < M UV < −19.8. With two LAEs detected at z = 7.68, we also consider the possibility of an ionized bubble at this redshift. Future synergistic Keck+JWST efforts will provide a powerful tool for pinpointing beacons of reionization and mapping the large-scale distribution of mass relative to the ionization state of the Universe.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85199002431&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/ad4c6c
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/ad4c6c
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85199002431
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 970
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 1
M1 - 50
ER -