Photometric IGM tomography with Subaru/HSC: the large-scale structure of Ly α emitters and IGM transmission in the COSMOS field at z ∼ 5

We present a novel technique called 'photometric IGM tomography' to map the intergalactic medium (IGM) at z ≃ 4.9 in the COSMOS field. It utilizes deep narrow-band (NB) imaging to photometrically detect faint Ly α forest transmission in background galaxies across the Subaru/Hyper-Suprime Cam (HSC)'s $1.8\rm \, sq.\, deg$ field of view and locate Ly α emitters (LAEs) in the same cosmic volume. Using ultra-deep HSC images and Bayesian spectral energy distribution fitting, we measure the Ly α forest transmission at z ≃ 4.9 along a large number (140) of background galaxies selected from the DEIMOS10k spectroscopic catalogue at 4.98 < z < 5.89 and the SILVERRUSH LAEs at z ≃ 5.7. We photometrically measure the mean Ly α forest transmission and achieve a result consistent with previous measurements based on quasar spectra. We also measure the angular LAE-Ly α forest cross-correlation and Ly α forest autocorrelation functions and place an observational constraint on the large-scale fluctuations of the IGM around LAEs at z ≃ 4.9. Finally, we present the reconstructed 2D tomographic map of the IGM, co-spatial with the large-scale structure of LAEs, at a transverse resolution of $11 \, h^{-1}\rm cMpc$ across $140\, h^{-1}\rm cMpc$ in the COSMOS field at z ≃ 4.9. We discuss the observational requirements and the potential applications of this new technique for understanding the sources of reionization, quasar radiative history, and galaxy-IGM correlations across z ~ 3-6. Our results represent the first proof-of-concept of photometric IGM tomography, offering a new route to examining early galaxy evolution in the context of the large-scale cosmic web from the epoch of reionization to cosmic noon.