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Arxiv: Intergalactic Lyman-α haloes before reionization are detectable with JWST Published: 4/29/2024 9:00:01 PM Updated: 10/3/2024 8:20:31 PM

Paper abstract: The James \ Webb \ Space \ Telescope \ (JWST) recently reported a largepopulation of UV luminous galaxies at high redshifts, z > 10, as well asLyman-\alpha emitting (LAE) galaxies out to z ~ 11. We use the observedUV luminosities along with a data-driven approach at lower redshifts to placeconstraints on the observability of the intergalactic Lyman-\alpha intensity,scattered in the form of Loeb-Rybicki haloes, during the pre-reionization andreionization epochs (z ~ 9-16). We forecast the sensitivity and resolutionrequired to detect these intergalactic haloes, finding that individual haloeswith LAE luminosities > 10^{43} ergs/s are detectable at a few sigma level atz <~ 9, while stacking of ~ 10 haloes is expected to result indetections out to z ~ 16. Finding these haloes is expected to shed lighton the neutral intergalactic hydrogen during cosmic reionization.