RESEARCH
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Out of this world: the first 2 Gyrs of cosmic time with the widest Lyman-alpha surveys

David Sobral
IA/U.Lisboa

Abstract
I will present new results regarding the first 2 Gyrs of cosmic time using very wide-field Lyman-alpha narrow-band surveys, including a large, matched Lya-Ha survey at z=2.23 to calibrate Lyman-alpha (CALYMHA). We are currently conducting and exploring unique ~10 deg^2 NB surveys with CFHT, Subaru and the INT to look for Lyman-alpha emitters at z=2.23-8.8. Surprisingly, we find a much higher space density of luminous Lyman-alpha emitters at z~6-7 than previously assumed, which we confirm spectroscopically with Keck and the VLT and that may be powered by PopIII stars. Our unique samples include sources even more luminous in Lyman-alpha than Himiko at z=6.6 (e.g. our CR7 galaxy), showing that ultra-luminous Lyman-alpha emitters are much more common than thought at z~6.6, with consequences for our understanding of re-ionisation and highly relevant for what J-PAS and EUCLID may be able to recover by conducting ultra-wide surveys.

2015 February 04, 13:30

IA/U.Porto
Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto (Auditorium)
Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto

Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa Universidade do Porto Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia COMPETE 2020 PORTUGAL 2020 União Europeia