Spectroscopy of z-6 i-dropout galaxies:: Frequency of Lyα emission and the sizes of Lyα-emitting galaxies

We report on deep spectroscopy, using LRIS on Keck I and FORS2 on the VLT, of a sample of 22 candidate z similar to 6 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) selected by the (i)775 - z(850) > 1: 3 dropout criterion. Redshifts could be measured for eight objects. These redshifts are all in the range z = 5: 5-6.1, confirming the efficiency of the i775 - z850 color selection technique. Six of the confirmed galaxies show Ly alpha emission. Assuming that the 14 objects without redshifts are z similar to 6 LBGs that lack detectable Ly alpha emission lines, we infer that the fraction of Ly alpha-emitting LBGs with Ly alpha equivalent widths greater than 20 angstrom among z similar to 6 LBGs is approximate to 30%, similar to that found at z similar to 3. Every Ly alpha-emitting object in our sample is compact, with half-light radii r(hl) <= 0:14". Furthermore, all the Ly alpha-emitting objects in our sample are more compact than average relative to the observed size-magnitude relation of a large i-dropout sample (332 candidate z similar to 6 objects). We can reject the hypothesis that the Ly alpha-emitting population is a subset of the rest of the z similar to 6 LBG population at > 97% confidence. We speculate that the small sizes of the Ly alpha-emitting LBGs are due to these objects being less massive than other LBGs at z similar to 6.