Unveiling the most luminous Lyman-α emitters in the epoch of reionisation

Matthee, Jorryt and Sobral, David (2020) Unveiling the most luminous Lyman-α emitters in the epoch of reionisation. Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union. pp. 21-25. ISSN 1743-9213

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Abstract

Distant luminous Lyman-alpha emitters are excellent targets for detailed observations of galaxies in the epoch of reionisation. Spatially resolved observations of these galaxies allow us to simultaneously probe the emission from young stars, partially ionised gas in the interstellar medium and to constrain the properties of the surrounding hydrogen in the circumgalactic medium. We review recent results from (spectroscopic) follow-up studies of the rest-frame UV, Lyman-alpha and [CII] emission in luminous galaxies observed ~500 Myr after the Big Bang with ALMA, HST/WFC3 and VLT/X-SHOOTER. These galaxies likely reside in early ionised bubbles and are complex systems, consisting of multiple well separated and resolved components where traces of metals are already present.