Large-scale environment of $z\sim 5.7$ CIV absorption systems -II. Spectroscopy of Lyman-$\alpha$ emitters

TL;DR

This study investigates the environment of CIV absorption systems at z~5.7 by spectroscopically analyzing Lyman-alpha emitters, revealing potential galaxy-absorber associations and insights into early metal enrichment and reionization.

Contribution

First spectroscopic follow-up of LAEs near z~5.7 CIV systems, providing evidence for galaxy-absorber connections and metal enrichment at high redshift.

Findings

LAE 103027+052419 is close to the CIV system, suggesting a physical association.

CIV systems at z>6 may be enriched by star-forming galaxies with outflows.

The CIV system likely traces the ionized IGM at the end of reionization.

Abstract

The flow of baryons to and from a galaxy, which is fundamental for galaxy formation and evolution, can be studied with galaxy-metal absorption system pairs. Our search for galaxies around CIV absorption systems at $z\sim5.7$ showed an excess of photometric Lyman-$\alpha$ emitter (LAE) candidates in the fields J1030+0524 and J1137+3549. Here we present spectroscopic follow-up of 33 LAEs in both fields. In the first field, three out of the five LAEs within 10$h^{{-}1}$ projected comoving Mpc from the CIV system are within $\pm500$ km s$^{{-}1}$ from the absorption at $z_{\text{CIV}}=5.7242\pm0.0001$. The closest candidate (LAE 103027+052419) is robustly confirmed at $212.8^{+14}_{-0.4}h^{-1}$ physical kpc from the CIV system. In the second field, the LAE sample is selected at a lower redshift ($\Delta z\sim0.04$) than the CIV absorption system as a result of the filter transmission and, thus, do not trace its environment. The observed properties of LAE 103027+052419 indicate that it is near the high-mass end of the LAE distribution, probably having a large HI column density and large-scale outflows. Therefore, our results suggest that the CIV system is likely produced by a star-forming galaxy which has been injecting metals into the intergalactic medium since $z>6$. Thus, the CIV system is either produced by LAE 103027+052419, implying that outflows can enrich larger volumes at $z>6$ than at $z\sim3.5$, or an undetected dwarf galaxy. In either case, CIV systems like this one trace the ionized intergalactic medium at the end of cosmic hydrogen reionization and may trace the sources of the ionizing flux density.