SEARCH FOR z ∼ 6.96 Lyα EMITTERS WITH MAGELLAN/IMACS IN THE COSMOS FIELD

We report a search for z similar to 6.96 Ly alpha emitters (LAEs) using a narrowband filter, centered at 9680 angstrom with the Inamori-Magellan Area Camera and Spectrograph instrument on the Magellan telescope at Las Campanas Observatory. We obtain a sample of six LAE candidates of luminosity similar to 10(42) erg s(-1) in a total area of 465 arcmin(2) corresponding to a comoving volume of similar to 72,000 Mpc(3). From this result, we derive a Ly alpha luminosity function (LF) at z similar to 6.96 and compare our sample with the only z similar to 6.96 LAE spectroscopically confirmed to date. We find no evolution between the z = 5.7 and z similar to 7 Ly alpha LFs if a majority of our candidates are confirmed. Spectroscopic confirmation for this sample will enable more robust conclusions.