Spectroscopy of z ∼ 7 candidate galaxies: using Lyman α to constrain the neutral fraction of hydrogen in the high-redshift universe

Following our previous spectroscopic observations of z > 7 galaxies with Gemini/Gemini Near Infra-Red Spectrograph (GNIRS) and Very Large Telescope (VLT)/XSHOOTER, which targeted a total of eight objects, we present here our results from a deeper and larger VLT/FOcal Reducer and Spectrograph (FORS2) spectroscopic sample of Wide Field Camera 3 selected z > 7 candidate galaxies. With our FORS2 setup we cover the 737-1070 nm wavelength range, enabling a search for Lyman alpha in the redshift range spanning 5.06-7.80. We target 22 z-band dropouts and find no evidence of Lyman alpha emission, with the exception of a tentative detection (< 5 sigma, which is our adopted criterion for a secure detection) for one object. The upper limits on Lyman alpha flux and the broad-band magnitudes are used to constrain the rest-frame equivalent widths for this line emission. We analyse our FORS2 observations in combination with our previous GNIRS and XSHOOTER observations, and suggest that a simple model where the fraction of high rest-frame equivalent width emitters follows the trend seen at z = 3-6.5 is inconsistent with our non-detections at z similar to 7.8 at the 96 per cent confidence level. This may indicate that a significant neutral H-I fraction in the intergalactic medium suppresses Lyman alpha, with an estimated neutral fraction chi(HI) similar to 0.5, in agreement with other estimates.