We develop and assess the potential of several powerful techniques , designed to investigate the details of reionization .
First , we present a procedure to probe the neutral fraction , x _ { HI } , using the Lyman alpha transmission statistics of high-redshift ( z \hbox to 0.0 pt { \lower 2.5 pt \hbox { $ \sim$ } } \raise 1.5 pt \hbox { $ > $ } 6 ) sources .
We find that only tens of bright quasar spectra could distinguish between x _ { HI } \sim 1 and x _ { HI } \hbox to 0.0 pt { \lower 2.5 pt \hbox { $ \sim$ } } \raise 1.5 pt \hbox { $ < $ } 1 % 0 ^ { -2 } .
A rudimentary application of such a technique on quasar SDSS J1030+0524 has yielded compelling evidence of a large neutral fraction ( x _ { HI } \hbox to 0.0 pt { \lower 2.5 pt \hbox { $ \sim$ } } \raise 1.5 pt \hbox { $ > $ } 0.2 ) at z \sim 6 .
We also generate the observable , high- z supernovae ( SNe ) rates and quantify the prospects of detecting the suppression of star-formation in low-mass galaxies at reionization from such SNe rates , specifically from those obtainable from the James Webb Space Telescope ( JWST ) .
Our analysis suggests that searches for SNe could yield thousands of SNe per unit redshift at z \sim 6 , and be a valuable tool at studying reionization features and feedback effects out to z \hbox to 0.0 pt { \lower 2.5 pt \hbox { $ \sim$ } } \raise 1.5 pt \hbox { $ < $ } 13 .