Related papers: The Effect of Absorption Systems on Cosmic Reioniz…
One of the most sought-after signatures of reionization is a rapid increase in the ionizing background (usually measured through the Lyman-alpha optical depth toward distant quasars). Conventional wisdom associates this with the "overlap"…
Lyman-limit absorption systems can play many important roles during and after cosmological reionization. Unfortunately, due to the prohibitively large dynamic range required, it is impossible to self-consistently include these systems in…
I use cosmological simulations that incorporate a physically motivated approximation to three-dimensional radiative transfer that recovers correct asymptotic ionization front propagation speeds for some cosmologically relevant density…
The central overlap phase of cosmological hydrogen reionization is fundamentally a change in the topology of ionized regions. Before overlap, ionized bubbles grew in isolation. During overlap, they merge into a percolating ionized medium,…
Measurements of the mean free path of Lyman-continuum photons in the intergalactic medium during the epoch of reionization can help constrain the nature of the sources as well as sinks of hydrogen-ionizing radiation. A recent approach to…
We use cosmological simulations to explore the large-scale effects of reionization. Since reionization is a process that involves a large dynamic range - from galaxies to rare bright quasars - we need to be able to cover a significant…
Recent evidence supporting reionisation ending at redshift z<6 includes the rapid redshift evolution of the mean free path for Lyman-limit photons through the intergalactic medium at 5<z<6. Here we investigate the mean free path predicted…
Observations of the end stages of reionization indicate that at $z\approx 5-6$, the ionizing background is not uniform and the mean free path (MFP) changes drastically. As MFP is closely related to the distribution of Lyman Limit Systems…
Recent observations and analyses of absorption in quasar spectra suggest a rapid drop in the mean free path (MFP) at the late stage of reionization at $z\sim6$. We use the Cosmic Reionization on Computers simulation to examine potential…
The final stages of cosmic reionisation (EndEoR) are expected to be strongly regulated by the residual neutral hydrogen in the already ionised regions of the Universe. Its presence limits the mean distance that ionising photons can travel…
The reionization process is expected to be prolonged by the small-scale absorbers (SSAs) of ionizing photons, which have been seen as Lyman-limit systems in quasar absorption line observations. We use a set of semi-numerical simulations to…
A recent measurement of the Lyman-limit mean free path at $z = 6$ suggests it may have been very short, motivating a better understanding of the role that ionizing photon sinks played in reionization. Accurately modeling the sinks in…
Efficient and accurate simulations of the reionization epoch are crucial to exploring the vast uncharted parameter space that will soon be constrained by measurements of the 21 cm power spectrum. One of these parameters, $R_{\rm max}$, is…
We study the properties of self-shielding intergalactic absorption systems and their implications for the ionizing background. We find that cosmological simulations post-processed with detailed radiative transfer calculations generally are…
We study the topology of reionization using accurate three-dimensional radiative transfer calculations post-processed on outputs from cosmological hydrodynamic simulations. In our simulations, reionization begins in overdense regions and…
By depleting the ionizing photon budget available to expand cosmic HII regions, recombining systems (or Lyman limit systems) can have a large impact during (and following) cosmic reionization. Unfortunately, directly resolving such…
We present new calculations of the inhomogeneous process of cosmological reionization by carefully following the radiative transfer in pre-computed hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation. These new computations represent an…
The history of reionization reflects the cumulative injection of ionizing photons by sources and the absorption of ionizing photons by sinks. The latter process is traditionally described in terms of a "clumping factor" which encodes the…
We simulate a plausible cosmological model in considerable physical and numerical detail through the successive phases of reheating (at 10<z<20), formation of Pop III stars at z=15 (due to molecular hydrogen cooling), with subsequent…
We present the first large-scale, full radiative transfer simulations of the reionization of the intergalactic medium in the presence of Lyman-limit systems (LLSs). To illustrate the impact of LLS opacity, possibly missed by previous…