Faint LAEs near z > 4.7 C IV absorbers revealed by MUSE

We present the results from the search for Lyman alpha emitters (LAEs) in the proximity of 11 C IV absorption systems at z > 4.7 in the spectrum of the QSO J1030+0524, using data from Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer. We have found multiple LAE candidates close to four C IV systems at $z_{{\rm{C {\small IV}}}}=4.94$ -5.74 with $\log _{10}(N_{{\rm{C {\small IV}}}}[$ cm^-2]) > 13.5. At z = 5-6, C IV systems with W $_0({\rm{C {\small IV}}})\gt 0.2$ Å seem more likely to have galaxies with Ly α emission within ρ < 200 proper kpc (4/5 cases) than the C IV systems with W $_0({\rm{C {\small IV}}})\lt 0.2$ Å (0/6 cases). The impact parameter of LAE-C IV systems with equivalent widths W₀(C IV) > 0.5 Å is in the range $11\, \lesssim \, \rho \, \lesssim \, 200$ proper kpc (pkpc). Furthermore, all candidates are in the luminosity range 0.18-1.15 L $^{\star }_{\rm{{Ly\alpha}}}(z=5.7)$ , indicating that the environment of C IV systems within 200 pkpc is populated by the faint end of the Ly α luminosity function. We report a 0.28 L $^{\star }_{\rm{{Ly\alpha}}}$ galaxy at a separation of ρ = 11 pkpc from a strong C IV absorption ( $\log _{10}(N_{{\rm{C {\small IV}}}}[$ cm^-2]) = 14.52) at $z_{{\rm{C {\small IV}}}}=5.72419$ . The prevalence of sub-L $^{\star }_{\rm{{Ly\alpha}}}$ galaxies in the proximity of z > 4.9 C IV systems suggest that the absorbing material is rather young, likely ejected in the recent past of the identified galaxies. The connection between faint LAEs and high-ionization absorption systems reported in this work is potentially a consequence of the role of low-mass galaxies in the early evolution of the circum-galactic and intergalactic media.