A Luminosity Function of Lyman Alpha Emitting Galaxies at Redshift 4.5

TL;DR

This study catalogs 73 spectroscopically confirmed Lyman alpha emitting galaxies at redshift 4.5, analyzing their luminosity function and suggesting the intergalactic medium remains reionized up to z=6.5, with implications for galaxy evolution.

Contribution

First comprehensive spectroscopic catalog of z=4.5 Lyman alpha emitters with luminosity function analysis across 3.1<z<6.6, indicating no significant evolution in Lyman alpha luminosity function.

Findings

No significant evolution in Lyman alpha luminosity function from z~3 to z~6.6.

A notable fraction of galaxies have high equivalent widths exceeding stellar population predictions.

Supports the idea of a largely reionized intergalactic medium up to z=6.5.

Abstract

We present a catalog of 59 z=4.5 Lyman alpha emitting galaxies spectroscopically confirmed in a campaign of Keck/DEIMOS follow-up observations to candidates selected in the Large Area Lyman Alpha (LALA) narrow-band imaging survey. We targeted 97 candidates for spectroscopic follow-up; by accounting for the variety of conditions under which we performed spectroscopy, we estimate a selection reliability of about 76%. Together with our previous sample of Keck/LRIS confirmations, the 59 sources confirmed herein bring the total catalog to 73 spectroscopically confirmed z=4.5 Lyman alpha emitting galaxies in the 0.7 square degrees covered by the LALA imaging. As with the Keck/LRIS sample, we find that a non-negligible fraction of the confirmed Lyman alpha lines have rest-frame equivalent widths (w_{rest}) which exceed the maximum predicted for normal stellar populations: 17% -- 31% (93% confidence) of the detected galaxies show w_{rest} > 190 AA, and 12% -- 27% (90% confidence) show w_{rest} > 240 AA. We construct a luminosity function of z=4.5 Lyman alpha emission lines for comparison to Lyman alpha luminosity functions spanning 3.1 < z < 6.6. We find no significant evidence for Lyman alpha luminosity function evolution from z ~ 3 to z ~ 6. This result supports the conclusion that the intergalactic medium remains largely reionized from the local universe out to z=6.5. It is somewhat at odds with the pronounced drop in the cosmic star formation rate density recently measured between z~3 and z~6 in continuum-selected Lyman-break galaxies, and therefore potentially sheds light on the relationship between the two populations.