English

Galaxy Underdensities Host the Clearest IGM Ly$\alpha$ Transmission and Indicate Anisotropic Reionization

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2026-04-03 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Abstract

How galaxies drive reionization and what governs its geometry remain fundamental questions. We present JWST/NIRCam wide-field slitless spectroscopy (WFSS) observations toward two of the most Lyα\alpha-transmissive QSO sightlines near the end of reionization. We find that regions at z5.7z \sim 5.7 along both sightlines previously found to be low-density in Lyα\alpha emitters are also underdense in [O III] emitters, with densities less than half the cosmic mean. Other transmissive regions, however, are found to coincide with average-density environments, indicating that multiple pathways may produce high IGM transmission. For the first time, we measure the two-dimensional cross-correlation between IGM transmission and galaxy positions, revealing evidence for anisotropic ionization geometry. Specifically, we detect enhanced transmission at transverse distances of Δr0.8\Delta r \sim 0.8 times the mean free path, consistent with ionizing photons escaping preferentially along large-scale structures that are aligned with, but offset from, the line of sight. This anisotropic escape may contribute to the observed patchiness of reionization and challenges the assumption of isotropic ionized bubble growth in current models.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2510.09568,
  title  = {Galaxy Underdensities Host the Clearest IGM Ly$\alpha$ Transmission and Indicate Anisotropic Reionization},
  author = {Yongda Zhu and George D. Becker and Anson D'Aloisio and Ryan Endsley and Nakul Gangolli and Christopher Cain and Charlotte A. Mason and Seyedazim Hashemi and Hui Hong},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2510.09568},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in ApJ. Figures 3 and 7 show our main takeaways