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A SPectroscopic Survey of Biased Halos In the Reionization Era (ASPIRE): JWST Supports Earlier Reionization around [O iii] Emitters

Published inThe Astrophysical journal, vol. 976, no. 1, p. 23; 93
Publication date2024-11-20
First online date2024-11-14
Abstract

Understanding when and how reionization happened is crucial for studying the early structure formation and the properties of the first galaxies in the Universe. At z > 5.5, the observed intergalactic medium (IGM) optical depth shows a significant scatter, indicating an inhomogeneous reionization process. However, the nature of the inhomogeneous reionization remains debated. A SPectroscopic survey of biased halos In the Reionization Era (ASPIRE) is a JWST Cycle 1 program that has spectroscopically identified >400 [O iii ] emitters in 25 quasar fields at z > 6.5. Combined with deep ground-based optical spectroscopy of ASPIRE quasars, the ASPIRE program provides the current largest sample for IGM-galaxy connection studies during cosmic reionization. We present the first results of IGM effective optical depth measurements around [O iii ] emitters using 14 ASPIRE quasar fields. We find the IGM transmission is tightly related to reionization era galaxies to the extent that a significant excess of Ly α transmission exists around [O iii ] emitters. We measure the stacked IGM effective optical depth of IGM patches associated with [O iii ] emitters and find they reach the same IGM effective optical depth at least d z ∼ 0.1 ahead of those IGM patches where no [O iii ] emitters are detected, supporting earlier reionization around [O iii ] emitters. Our results indicate an enhancement in IGM Ly α transmission around [O iii ] emitters at scales beyond 25 h −1 cMpc, consistent with the predicted topology of reionization from fluctuating UV background models.

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Citation (ISO format)
JIN, Xiangyu et al. A SPectroscopic Survey of Biased Halos In the Reionization Era (ASPIRE): JWST Supports Earlier Reionization around [O iii] Emitters. In: The Astrophysical journal, 2024, vol. 976, n° 1, p. 23. doi: 10.3847/1538-4357/ad82de
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Journal ISSN0004-637X
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