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Most of the photons that reionized the Universe came from dwarf galaxies.
Atek, Hakim; Labbé, Ivo; Furtak, Lukas J; Chemerynska, Iryna; Fujimoto, Seiji; Setton, David J; Miller, Tim B; Oesch, Pascal; Bezanson, Rachel; Price, Sedona H; Dayal, Pratika; Zitrin, Adi; Kokorev, Vasily; Weaver, John R; Brammer, Gabriel; Dokkum, Pieter van; Williams, Christina C; Cutler, Sam E; Feldmann, Robert; Fudamoto, Yoshinobu; Greene, Jenny E; Leja, Joel; Maseda, Michael V; Muzzin, Adam; Pan, Richard; Papovich, Casey; Nelson, Erica J; Nanayakkara, Themiya; Stark, Daniel P; Stefanon, Mauro; Suess, Katherine A; Wang, Bingjie; Whitaker, Katherine E.
Afiliação
  • Atek H; Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France. hakim.atek@iap.fr.
  • Labbé I; Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
  • Furtak LJ; Physics Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be'er Sheva, Israel.
  • Chemerynska I; Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France.
  • Fujimoto S; Department of Astronomy, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
  • Setton DJ; Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
  • Miller TB; Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
  • Oesch P; Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva, Versoix, Switzerland.
  • Bezanson R; Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
  • Price SH; Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
  • Dayal P; Department of Physics and Astronomy and PITT PACC, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
  • Zitrin A; Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
  • Kokorev V; Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
  • Weaver JR; Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
  • Brammer G; Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA.
  • Dokkum PV; Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
  • Williams CC; Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
  • Cutler SE; NSF's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, Tucson, AZ, USA.
  • Feldmann R; Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
  • Fudamoto Y; Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA.
  • Greene JE; Institute for Computational Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Leja J; Waseda Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.
  • Maseda MV; National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Tokyo, Japan.
  • Muzzin A; Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA.
  • Pan R; Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
  • Papovich C; Institute for Computational and Data Sciences, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
  • Nelson EJ; Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
  • Nanayakkara T; Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA.
  • Stark DP; Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
  • Stefanon M; Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tufts University, Medford, MA, USA.
  • Suess KA; Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
  • Wang B; George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA.
  • Whitaker KE; Department for Astrophysical and Planetary Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA.
Nature ; 626(8001): 975-978, 2024 Feb.
Article em En | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-38418911
ABSTRACT
The identification of sources driving cosmic reionization, a major phase transition from neutral hydrogen to ionized plasma around 600-800 Myr after the Big Bang1-3, has been a matter of debate4. Some models suggest that high ionizing emissivity and escape fractions (fesc) from quasars support their role in driving cosmic reionization5,6. Others propose that the high fesc values from bright galaxies generate sufficient ionizing radiation to drive this process7. Finally, a few studies suggest that the number density of faint galaxies, when combined with a stellar-mass-dependent model of ionizing efficiency and fesc, can effectively dominate cosmic reionization8,9. However, so far, comprehensive spectroscopic studies of low-mass galaxies have not been done because of their extreme faintness. Here we report an analysis of eight ultra-faint galaxies (in a very small field) during the epoch of reionization with absolute magnitudes between MUV ≈ -17 mag and -15 mag (down to 0.005L⋆ (refs. 10,11)). We find that faint galaxies during the first thousand million years of the Universe produce ionizing photons with log[ξion (Hz erg-1)] = 25.80 ± 0.14, a factor of 4 higher than commonly assumed values12. If this field is representative of the large-scale distribution of faint galaxies, the rate of ionizing photons exceeds that needed for reionization, even for escape fractions of the order of 5%.
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Texto completo: 1 Coleções: 01-internacional Base de dados: MEDLINE Idioma: En Revista: Nature Ano de publicação: 2024 Tipo de documento: Article País de afiliação: França
Texto completo
Imprimir
XML
PubMed Links
Buscar no Google

Texto completo: 1 Coleções: 01-internacional Base de dados: MEDLINE Idioma: En Revista: Nature Ano de publicação: 2024 Tipo de documento: Article País de afiliação: França