Probing Intergalactic Neutral Hydrogen by the Lyman Alpha Red Damping
  Wing of Gamma-Ray Burst 130606A Afterglow Spectrum at z = 5.913
  The unprecedentedly bright optical afterglow of GRB 130606A located by Swift
at a redshift close to the reionization era (z = 5.913) provides a new
opportunity to probe the ionization status of intergalactic medium (IGM). Here
we present an analysis of the red Ly alpha damping wing of the afterglow
spectrum taken by Subaru/FOCAS during 10.4-13.2 hr after the burst. We find
that the minimal model including only the baseline power-law and HI absorption
in the host galaxy does not give a good fit, leaving residuals showing concave
curvature in 8400-8900 A with an amplitude of about 0.6% of the flux. Such a
curvature in the short wavelength range cannot be explained either by
extinction at the host with standard extinction curves, intrinsic curvature of
afterglow spectra, or by the known systematic uncertainties in the observed
spectrum. The red damping wing by intervening HI gas outside the host can
reduce the residual by about 3 sigma statistical significance. We find that a
damped Ly alpha system is not favored as the origin of this intervening HI
absorption, from the observed Ly beta and metal absorption features. Therefore
absorption by diffuse IGM remains as a plausible explanation. A fit by a simple
uniform IGM model requires HI neutral fraction of f_HI ~ 0.1-0.5 depending on
the distance to the GRB host, implying high f_HI IGM associated with the
observed dark Gunn-Peterson (GP) troughs. This gives a new evidence that the
reionization is not yet complete at z ~ 6.
