# First Spectroscopic Confirmations of z ~ 7.0 Lya Emitting Galaxies in the LAGER Survey

## TL;DR

This study reports the first spectroscopic confirmations of z~7.0 Lyman-alpha emitting galaxies, expanding the sample size and providing insights into cosmic reionization and galaxy evolution at this epoch.

## Contribution

It presents the first spectroscopic follow-up of z~7 LAE candidates from the LAGER survey, confirming six galaxies and revealing their properties and implications for reionization.

## Key findings

- Six LAEs confirmed at z~7, including three luminous ones.
- Tripled the number of spectroscopically confirmed z>7 LAEs.
- Evidence supporting a patchy reionization scenario.

## Abstract

Narrowband imaging is a highly successful approach for finding large numbers of high redshift Lya emitting galaxies (LAEs) up to z~6.6. However, at z>~7 there are as yet only 3 narrowband selected LAEs with spectroscopic confirmations (two at z~6.9-7.0, one at z~7.3), which hinders extensive studies on cosmic reionization and galaxy evolution at this key epoch. We have selected 23 candidate z~6.9 LAEs in COSMOS field with the large area narrowband survey LAGER (Lyman-Alpha Galaxies at the End of Reionization). In this work we present spectroscopic followup observations of 12 candidates using IMACS on Magellan. For 9 of these, the observations are sufficiently deep to detect the expected lines. Lya emission lines are identified in six sources (yielding a success rate of 2/3), including 3 luminous LAEs with Lya luminosities of L(Lya) ~ 10^{43.5} erg/s, the highest among known spectroscopically confirmed galaxies at >~7.0. This triples the sample size of spectroscopically confirmed narrowband selected LAEs at z>~7, and confirms the bright end bump in the Lya luminosity function we previously derived based on the photometric sample, supporting a patchy reionization scenario. Two luminous LAEs appear physically linked with projected distance of 1.1 pMpc and velocity difference of ~ 170 km/s. They likely sit in a common ionized bubble produced by themselves or with close neighbors, which reduces the IGM attenuation of Lya. A tentative narrow NV${\lambda}$1240 line is seen in one source, hinting at activity of a central massive black hole with metal rich line emitting gas.