The Reionization and Galaxy Evolution Probed by z=7 Lyman Alpha Emitters

Understand

We made a narrowband NB973 (bandwidth of 200A at 9755A) imaging of the Subaru Deep Field (SDF) and found two z=7 Lyman alpha emitter (LAE) candidates down to NB973=24.9.

• Carrying out deep follow-up spectroscopy, we identified one of them as a real z=6.96 LAE.
• This has shown that galaxy formation was in progress just 750 Myr after the Big Bang.
• Meanwhile, the Lyman alpha line luminosity function of LAE is known to decline from z=5.7 to 6.6 in the SDF.