J/ApJS/278/33 Lyalpha emission in JADES, GLASS and CEERS gal. (Kageura+, 2025)
Census of Lyalpha emission from ∼600 galaxies at z=5-14: evolution of the Lya
Luminosity Function and a late sharp cosmic reionization.
Kageura Y., Ouchi M., Nakane M., Umeda H., Harikane Y., Yoshiura S.,
Nakajima K., Yajima H., Thai T.T.
<Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser., 278, 33 (2025)>
=2025ApJS..278...33K 2025ApJS..278...33K
ADC_Keywords: Galaxies, spectra; Redshifts; Spectra, infrared; Ultraviolet;
Magnitudes, absolute; Equivalent widths
Keywords: Galaxy evolution ; High-redshift galaxies ; Lya galaxies ;
Reionization
Abstract:
We present the statistical properties of Lyα emission in
586 galaxies at z=4.5-14.2, observed by multiple JWST/NIRSpec
spectroscopy projects, including the JADES, GLASS, CEERS, and GO/DDT
programs. We obtain Lyα equivalent width (EW), Lyα escape
fraction, and ionizing photon production efficiency measurements or
upper limits for these galaxies, and confirm that the Lya-emitting
galaxy fraction decreases toward higher redshifts. We derive Lyα
luminosity functions from z∼5 to z∼10-14 with the observed Lyα
EW distributions and galaxy UV luminosity functions, and find an ∼3dex
decrease in number density at LLyα=1042-1043erg/s over the
redshift range. Notably, this study presents the first constraints on
the Lyα luminosity function at z∼8-14. We obtain the neutral
hydrogen fractions of xHI=0.17-0.16+0.23, 0.63-0.28+0.18,
0.79-0.21+0.13, and 0.88-0.13+0.11 at z∼6, 7, 8-9, and 10-14,
respectively, via comparisons of the reionization models developed by
seminumerical simulations with 21cmFAST explaining the observations of
Lyα, UV continuum, and Planck electron optical depth. The high
xHI values over z∼7-14 suggest a late and sharp reionization, with
the primary reionization process occurring at z∼6-7. Such a late and
sharp reionization is not easily explained by either a clumpy
intergalactic medium or sources of reionization in a classical
faint-galaxy or a bright-galaxy/active galactic nucleus (AGN)
scenario, unless a very high escape fraction or AGN duty cycle is
assumed at z∼6-7.
Description:
We use JWST/NIRSpec microshutter assembly (MSA) spectra obtained from
the following public observations: the JWST Advanced Deep
Extragalactic Survey (JADES; GTO 1180/1181, GTO 1210/1286, and
GO 3215, led by PIs D. Eisenstein, N. Lutzgendorf, and D. Eisenstein
& R. Maiolino, respectively; Eisenstein+ 2025ApJS..281...50E 2025ApJS..281...50E &
2023arXiv230602465E 2023arXiv230602465E; Bunker+ 2024, J/A+A/690/A288;
D'Eugenio+ 2025ApJS..277....4D 2025ApJS..277....4D), the GLASS JWST Early Release Science
Program (ERS 1324, PI: T. Treu; Treu+ 2022ApJ...935..110T 2022ApJ...935..110T), the Cosmic
Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS; ERS 1345, PI: S. Finkelstein;
Arrabal Haro+ 2023ApJ...951L..22A 2023ApJ...951L..22A; Finkelstein+ 2023ApJ...946L..13F 2023ApJ...946L..13F),
GO 1433 (PI: D. Coe; Hsiao+ 2024ApJ...973....8H 2024ApJ...973....8H), and DDT 2750 (PI:
Arrabal Haro+ 2023Natur.622..707A 2023Natur.622..707A).
All JADES programs, except GO 3215, observed the targets with the
prism (R∼100), which covered 0.6-5.3um and three medium resolution
(R∼1000) grating/filter pairs of G140M/F070LP, G235M/F170LP, and
G395M/F290LP that covered 0.7-1.3um, 1.7-3.1um, and 2.9-5.1um,
respectively.
The GLASS data were taken at one pointing position with
high-resolution (R∼2700) grating/filter pairs of G140H/F100LP
(1.0-1.8um), G235H/F170LP (1.7-3.1um), and G395M/F290LP (2.9-5.1um).
The CEERS observed the targets at eight and six pointing positions
with the prism and three medium resolution grating/filter pairs,
respectively, which are G140M/F100LP (1.0-1.8um), G235M/F170LP, and
G395M/F290LP.
See Section 2.
File Summary:
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FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ReadMe 80 . This file
tablea1.dat 126 586 Sample in this study
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See also:
J/ApJS/176/301 : Subaru/XMM-Newton deep survey IV. (SXDS) (Ouchi+, 2008)
J/MNRAS/449/4204 : WFC3/UVIS quasar-stacked spectrum at z≃2.4 (Lusso+, 2015)
J/ApJ/854/73 : Full-data results of HFF: galaxies z∼6-9 (Ishigaki+, 2018)
J/AJ/162/47 : UV luminosity in ∼25000 2<z<9 galaxies (Bouwens+, 2021)
J/MNRAS/517/3263 : IGM Neutral Fraction Inference (Bolan+, 2022)
J/ApJ/932/76 : Lyβ dark gaps in z≲6 QSOs spectra (Zhu+, 2022)
J/ApJS/269/33 : JWST z=4-10 gal. mass-metallicities (Nakajima+, 2023)
J/A+A/690/A288 : JADES NIRSpec initial DR for the HUDF (Bunker+, 2024)
J/A+A/693/A60 : JWST/NIRSpec reference sample (Heintz+, 2025)
J/A+A/694/A100 : Spectral properties of 468 LAEs MUSE obs. (Vitte+, 2025)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: tablea1.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 17 A17 --- ID Identifier
19- 27 F9.5 deg RAdeg [3.6/215.3] Right Ascension (J2000)
29- 37 F9.5 deg DEdeg [-30.5/70.3] Declination (J2000)
39- 44 F6.3 --- z [4.5/14.2] Systemic redshift
46 A1 --- r_z [abc] Reference flag on z (1)
48- 53 F6.2 mag UVMAG [-21.7/-14.8]? UV absolute magnitude (2)
55 A1 --- r_UVMAG [bcde] Reference flag on UVMAG (1)
57 A1 --- l_FLya The 3σ upper limit flag on FLya
58- 61 I4 10-19mW/m2 FLya [2/1000]? Lyα flux;
1e-19erg/s/cm2 (2)
63- 65 I3 10-19mW/m2 e_FLya [3/201]? The 1σ uncertainty in FLya
67- 70 I4 km/s DelvLya [0/1233]? Lyα velocity offset
72- 74 I3 km/s e_DelvLya [5/407]? The 1σ uncertainty in
DelvLya
76 A1 --- r_DelvLya [c] Reference flag on DelvLya (1)
78 A1 --- l_fesc The 3σ upper limit flag on fesc
79- 84 F6.2 --- fesc [0.01/10.73]? Lyα escape fraction
86- 89 F4.2 --- e_fesc [0.01/2.2]? The 1σ uncertainty in
fesc
91 A1 --- r_fesc [c] Reference flag on fesc (1)
93 A1 --- l_EW The 3σ upper limit flag on EWLya
94- 98 I5 0.1nm EW [1/14219]? Rest-frame Lyα
equivalent width; Angstroms,
not corrected for slit loss (2)
100- 101 I2 0.1nm e_EW [1/82]? The 1σ uncertainty in EW
103 A1 --- r_EW [bc] Reference flag on EW (1)
105 A1 --- l_EWT24 The 3σ upper limit flag on EWT24
106- 108 I3 0.1nm EWT24 [2/278]? Rest-frame Tang+
2024MNRAS.531.2701T 2024MNRAS.531.2701T Lyα
equivalent width; Angstroms
110- 111 I2 0.1nm e_EWT24 [1/54]? The 1σ uncertainty in EWT24
113 A1 --- l_EWJ24 The 3σ upper limit flag on EWJ24
114- 117 I4 0.1nm EWJ24 [7/1401]? Rest-frame
Jones+ 2025MNRAS.536.2355J 2025MNRAS.536.2355J
Lyα equivalent width; Angstroms
119- 121 I3 0.1nm e_EWJ24 [1/116]? The 1σ uncertainty in
EWJ24
123- 126 I4 --- PID [1180/3215] JWST program identifier
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Note (1): Reference code as follows:
a = Carniani et al. 2025A&A...696A..87C 2025A&A...696A..87C
b = Carniani et al. 2024Natur.633..318C 2024Natur.633..318C
c = Witstok et al. 2024arXiv240816608W 2024arXiv240816608W
d = Harikane et al. 2024ApJ...960...56H 2024ApJ...960...56H
e = Nakajima et al. 2023, J/ApJS/269/33
Note (2): Measured in this work. EWs of JADES-GS-z14-0, JADES-GS-z14-1,
JADES-GS-z13-1-LA measured by Carniani+ (2025A&A...696A..87C 2025A&A...696A..87C;
2024Natur.633..318C 2024Natur.633..318C) and Witstok+ 2025Natur.639..897W 2025Natur.639..897W are included in
this column.
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History:
From electronic version of the journal
(End) Prepared by [AAS], Emmanuelle Perret [CDS] 13-Feb-2026