094305

To reionize the universe at z>5 at least 10% Lyman Continuum (LyC <912A)radiation needs to escape from galaxies to the IGM but determining whatmechanisms drive this large escape fraction (fesc) still eludes us. Feedbackfrom X-ray sources can enable LyC escape but there is not yet observationalevidence of such sources in strong LyC emitters (LCEs). Direct measurements ofLyC at the reionization epoch are impossible due to the large IGM opacity.Significant efforts thus have been devoted to identifying LCEs in the localuniverse. Here we propose a 284-ks program to observe four strong LCEs at z~0.3.These will be the first X-ray observations in galaxies with fesc>10%. We willtest whether feedback from luminous X-ray sources may play a role in enabling LyC escape and reionizing the universe. [truncated! Please see actual data for full text]