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We study CMB secondary anisotropies produced by inhomogeneous reionization by means of cosmological simulations coupled with the radiative transfer code CRASH. The reionization history is consistent with the WMAP Thomson optical depth…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 R. Salvaterra , B. Ciardi , A. Ferrara , C. Baccigalupi

WMAP precision data enables accurate testing of cosmological models. We find that the emerging standard model of cosmology, a flat Lambda-dominated universe seeded by nearly scale-invariant adiabatic Gaussian fluctuations, fits the WMAP…

The mean free path of ionizing photons, $\lambda_{\rm mfp}$, is a critical parameter for modeling the intergalactic medium (IGM) both during and after reionization. We present direct measurements of $\lambda_{\rm mfp}$ from QSO spectra over…

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…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-10-31 Nickolay Y. Gnedin

We present a new suite of late-end reionization simulations performed with ATON-HE, a revised version of the GPU-based radiative transfer code ATON that includes helium. The simulations are able to reproduce the Ly$\alpha$ flux distribution…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2024-09-12 Shikhar Asthana , Martin G. Haehnelt , Girish Kulkarni , Dominique Aubert , James S. Bolton , Laura C. Keating

The density and temperature properties of the intergalactic medium (IGM) reflect the heating and ionization history during cosmological structure formation, and are primarily probed by the Lyman-alpha forest of neutral hydrogen absorption…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2021-05-26 Bruno Villasenor , Brant Robertson , Piero Madau , Evan Schneider

The epoch of hydrogen reionization is complete by $z=5$, but its progression at higher redshifts is uncertain. Measurements of Ly$\alpha$ forest opacity show large scatter at $z<6$, suggestive of spatial fluctuations in neutral fraction…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2023-12-05 Caitlin C. Doughty , Joseph F. Hennawi , Jose Oñorbe , Frederick B. Davies , Zarija Lukić

Lyman alpha galaxies at high redshifts offer a powerful probe of both the formation of galaxies and the reionization of the intergalactic medium. Lyman alpha line emission is an efficient tool for identifying young galaxies at high…

Astrophysics · Physics 2016-08-30 James E. Rhoads , Sangeeta Malhotra

We explore how the assumption of ionization equilibrium modulates the modeled intergalactic medium (IGM) at the end of the hydrogen Epoch of Reionization using the cosmological radiation hydrodynamic \textsc{Technicolor Dawn} simulation. In…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2022-06-01 Samir Kušmić , Kristian Finlator , Laura Keating , Ezra Huscher

The amplitude of the ionizing background that pervades the intergalactic medium (IGM) at the end of the epoch of reionization provides a valuable constraint on the emissivity of the sources which reionized the Universe. While measurements…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2018-03-28 Frederick B. Davies , Joseph F. Hennawi , Anna-Christina Eilers , Zarija Lukić

We present measurements of the mean and scatter of the IGM Lyman-{\alpha} opacity at 4.9 < z < 6.1 along the lines of sight of 62 quasars at z > 5.7, the largest sample assembled at these redshifts to date by a factor of two. The sample…

We present a new flexible Bayesian framework for directly inferring the fraction of neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium (IGM) during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR, z~6-10) from detections and non-detections of Lyman Alpha…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2018-03-28 Charlotte A. Mason , Tommaso Treu , Mark Dijkstra , Andrei Mesinger , Michele Trenti , Laura Pentericci , Stephane de Barros , Eros Vanzella

The conditions within the ionization front of a quasar during reionization (T ~ 30,000 K, neutral hydrogen fraction ~ 0.5) are ideal for producing Lyman-alpha emission via collisional excitation of hydrogen atoms. Observations of this…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2017-02-15 Frederick B. Davies , Steven R. Furlanetto , Matthew McQuinn

The goal of searching back in cosmic time to find star formation during the epoch of reionization will soon be within reach. We assess the detectability of high-redshift galaxies by combining cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy…

The WMAP satellite has measured a large optical depth to electron scattering after cosmological recombination of 0.17+-0.04, implying significant reionization of the primordial gas only ~200 million years after the big bang. However, the…

Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-24 Stuart Wyithe , Abraham Loeb

We report the discovery of an extremely long ($\sim$110 Mpc/$h$) and dark ($\tau_{\rm eff} \gtrsim 7$) Ly$\alpha$ trough extending down to $z \simeq 5.5$ towards the $z_{\rm em} \simeq 6.0$ quasar ULAS J0148+0600. We use these new data in…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-22 George D. Becker , James S. Bolton , Piero Madau , Max Pettini , Emma V. Ryan-Weber , Bram P. Venemans

We present a new investigation of the intergalactic medium (IGM) near the end of reionization using "dark gaps" in the Lyman-alpha (Ly$\alpha$) forest. Using spectra of 55 QSOs at $z_{\rm em}>5.5$, including new data from the XQR-30 VLT…

Lyman limit systems (LLSs) are dense hydrogen clouds with high enough HI column densities to absorb Lyman continuum photons emitted from distant quasars. Their high column densities imply an origin in dense environments; however, the…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2024-03-04 Jiawen Fan , Hanjue Zhu , Camille Avestruz , Nickolay Y. Gnedin

A variety of independent observational studies have now reported a significant decline in the fraction of Lyman-break galaxies which exhibit Ly-a emission over the redshift interval z=6-7. In combination with the strong damping wing…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-11 James S. Bolton , Martin G. Haehnelt

Cosmological constraints from the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies rely on accurate theoretical calculations of the cosmic recombination history. Recent work has emphasized the importance of radiative transfer calculations due…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2014-11-18 Christopher M. Hirata , John Forbes