Constraints on the $z\sim6-13$ intergalactic medium from JWST spectroscopy of Lyman-alpha damping wings in galaxies

TL;DR

This study uses JWST/NIRSpec spectra of high-redshift galaxies to analyze the state of the intergalactic medium during reionization, finding increased neutrality at z>9 and emphasizing the need for high S/N data for accurate IGM property estimation.

Contribution

It introduces a method to infer IGM neutral fractions from JWST spectra using damping wing models and provides new constraints on IGM neutrality at z>9.

Findings

IGM becomes more neutral at z>9, consistent with smaller ionized regions.

High S/N (>15 per pixel) spectra are essential for reliable IGM measurements.

Galaxies with strong HI absorption are often in dense environments.

Abstract

JWST provides a unique dataset to study reionization's earliest stages, promising insights into the first galaxies. Many JWST/NIRSpec prism spectra reveal smooth Lyman-alpha breaks in z>5 galaxies, implying damping wing scattering by neutral hydrogen. We investigate what current prism spectra imply about the intergalactic medium (IGM), and how best to use NIRSpec spectra to recover IGM properties. We use a sample of 99 z~5.5-13 galaxies with high S/N prism spectra in the public archive, including 12 at z>10. We analyse these spectra using damping wing sightlines from inhomogeneous reionizing IGM simulations, mapping between the distance of a source from neutral IGM and the mean IGM neutral fraction. We marginalise over absorption by local HI around galaxies, and Lyman-alpha emission. We observe a decline in the median and variance of flux around the Lyman-alpha break with increasing redshift, consistent with an increasingly neutral IGM, as ionized regions become smaller and rarer. At $z\gtrsim9$ the spectra become consistent with an almost fully neutral IGM. We find S/N>15 per pixel is required to robustly estimate IGM properties from prism spectra. We fit a sub-sample of high S/N spectra and infer mean neutral fractions $\overline{x}_\mathrm{HI}=0.33^{+0.18}_{-0.27}, 0.64^{+0.17}_{-0.23}$ ($>0.70$ excluding GNz11) at $z \approx 6.5, 9.3$. We also investigate local HI absorption, finding median column density $\log_{10}N_\mathrm{HI}\approx10^{20.8}$ cm$^{-2}$, comparable to $z\sim3$ Lyman-break galaxies, with no significant redshift evolution. We find galaxies showing the strongest absorption are more likely to be in close associations (<500 pkpc), implying enhanced absorption in massive dark matter halos. Future deep prism and grating spectroscopy of z>9 sources will provide tighter constraints on the earliest stages of reionization, key for understanding the onset of star formation.