Strong damped Lyman-α absorption in young star-forming galaxies at redshifts 9 to 11

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Heintz, Kasper E.; Watson, Darach; Brammer, Gabriel; Vejlgaard, Simone; Hutter, Anne; Strait, Victoria B.; Matthee, Jorryt; Oesch, Pascal A.; Jakobsson, Pall; Tanvir, Nial R.; Laursen, Peter; Naidu, Rohan P.; Mason, Charlotte A.; Killi, Meghana; Jung, Intae; Hsiao, Tiger Yu-Yang; Coe, Dan; Haro, Pablo Arrabal; Finkelstein, Steven L.; Toft, Sune
• 署名单位: University of Copenhagen; Niels Bohr Institute; Institute of Science & Technology - Austria; University of Geneva; University of Iceland; University of Leicester; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); Space Telescope Science Institute; Johns Hopkins University; National Science Foundation (NSF); University of Texas System; University of Texas Austin
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-9981
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adj0343
• 发表日期: 2024-05-24
• 页码: 890-894
• 关键词: ly-alpha; escape fraction; epoch; jwst; gas; reionization; overdensities; emission; emitters; insight

摘要

Primordial neutral atomic gas, mostly composed of hydrogen, is the raw material for star formation in galaxies. However, there are few direct constraints on the amount of neutral atomic hydrogen (H i) in galaxies at early cosmic times. We analyzed James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) near-infrared spectroscopy of distant galaxies, at redshifts greater than or similar to 8. From a sample of 12 galaxies, we identified three that show strong damped Lyman-alpha absorption due to H i in their local surroundings. The galaxies are located at spectroscopic redshifts of 8.8, 10.2, and 11.4, corresponding to 400 to 600 million years after the Big Bang. They have H i column densities greater than or similar to 10(22 )cm(-2), which is an order of magnitude higher than expected for a fully neutral intergalactic medium, and constitute a gas-rich population of young star-forming galaxies.