Infra-red emission line tomography of the intergalactic medium during the Epoch of Reionization

Abstract

The first major star-forming galaxies and Active Galactic Nuclei will produce Balmer and higher order extended haloes during the Epoch of Reionization through the scattering of Lyman resonance line photons off the surrounding neutral intergalactic gas. The optical depth dependence of the scattering rates will produce a signal sensitive to both the density and velocity fluctuations of the gas, offering the possibility of probing the ionization region and flow field surrounding young star-forming galaxies. The requirements for detecting the haloes in the infra-red using a space-based telescope are discussed, along with an assessment of the possibility of detecting the haloes using the Tunable Filter Imager on the James Webb Space Telescope.