First Spectroscopic Confirmations of z ~ 7.0 Lya Emitting Galaxies in
  the LAGER Survey
  Narrowband imaging is a highly successful approach for finding large numbers
of high redshift Lya emitting galaxies (LAEs) up to z~6.6. However, at z>~7
there are as yet only 3 narrowband selected LAEs with spectroscopic
confirmations (two at z~6.9-7.0, one at z~7.3), which hinders extensive studies
on cosmic reionization and galaxy evolution at this key epoch. We have selected
23 candidate z~6.9 LAEs in COSMOS field with the large area narrowband survey
LAGER (Lyman-Alpha Galaxies at the End of Reionization). In this work we
present spectroscopic followup observations of 12 candidates using IMACS on
Magellan. For 9 of these, the observations are sufficiently deep to detect the
expected lines. Lya emission lines are identified in six sources (yielding a
success rate of 2/3), including 3 luminous LAEs with Lya luminosities of L(Lya)
~ 10^{43.5} erg/s, the highest among known spectroscopically confirmed galaxies
at >~7.0. This triples the sample size of spectroscopically confirmed
narrowband selected LAEs at z>~7, and confirms the bright end bump in the Lya
luminosity function we previously derived based on the photometric sample,
supporting a patchy reionization scenario. Two luminous LAEs appear physically
linked with projected distance of 1.1 pMpc and velocity difference of ~ 170
km/s. They likely sit in a common ionized bubble produced by themselves or with
close neighbors, which reduces the IGM attenuation of Lya. A tentative narrow
NV${\lambda}$1240 line is seen in one source, hinting at activity of a central
massive black hole with metal rich line emitting gas.
