We explore the effect of cosmic radiative feedback from the sources of reionization on the thermal evolution of the intergalactic medium. We find that different prescriptions for this feedback predict quite different thermal and reionization histories. In spite of this, current data can not discriminate among different reionization scenarios. We find that future observations both from 21-cm and CMB experiments can be used to break the degeneracy among model parameters provided that we will be able to remove the foreground signal at the percent (or better) level.
The ionizing ultraviolet background (UVB) during reionization can suppress the gas content of low-mass galaxies, even those capable of efficient atomic cooling, and thus lead to an extended reionization epoch. In this work, we explore the importance of negative UV radiative feedback on Tvir > 10^4 K halos during the middle and late stages of reionization. We do not try to self-consistently model reionization; instead, we explore a large parameter space in an attempt to draw general, robust conclusions. We do this using a tiered approach. Using 1-D hydrodynamical simulations, we model the colla…
We present the first calculation of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect due to the inhomogeneous reionization of the universe based on detailed large-scale radiative transfer simulations of reionization. The resulting sky power spectra peak at l=2000-8000 with maximum values of l^2C_l~1\times10^{-12}. The peak scale is determined by the typical size of the ionized regions and roughly corresponds to the ionized bubble sizes observed in our simulations, ~5-20 Mpc. The kSZ anisotropy signal from reionization dominates the primary CMB signal above l=3000. This predicted kSZ signal at arcmi…
A radiative transfer scheme is presented, based on a moment description of the equation of radiative transfer and the so-called ``M1 closure model'' for the Eddington tensor. This model features a strictly hyperbolic transport step for radiation: it has been implemented using standard Godunov--like techniques in a new code called ATON. Coupled to simple models of ionization chemistry and photo-heating, ATON is able to reproduce the results of other schemes on a various set of standard tests such as the expansion of a HII region, the shielding of the radiation by dense clumps and cosmological i…
The thermal history of the intergalactic medium (IGM) after reionization is to a large extent determined by photoheating. Here we demonstrate that calculations of the photoheating rate which neglect radiative transfer effects substantially underestimate the energy input during and after reionization. The neglect of radiative transfer effects results in temperatures of the IGM which are too low by a factor of two after HeII reionization. We briefly discuss implications for the absorption properties of the IGM and the distribution of baryons in shallow potential wells.
We show that the algorithm based on the weighted essentially nonoscillatory (WENO) scheme with anti-diffusive flux corrections can be used as a solver of the radiative transfer equations. This algorithm is highly stable and robust for solving problems with both discontinuities and smooth solution structures. We test this code with the ionized sphere around point sources. It shows that the WENO scheme can reveal the discontinuity of the radiative or ionizing fronts as well as the evolution of photon frequency spectrum with high accuracy on coarse meshes and for a very wide parameter space. This…
We investigate the role of the radiative effects for the temporal evolution of the reionization fraction by using cosmological Smooth Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations. We find that the increase of photo-ionization and photo-heating rates due to optical depth effects results in a significantly contribute to the heating of the IGM before and during the reionization. The main effect of the UV radiation spectrum on the temporal evolution of the ionization fraction is given by the value of the reionization redshift and the redshift interval, in which the reionization is completed. We evalua…
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 important step on the way towards fully self-consistent and adaptive calculations which will eventually cover the enormous range of scales from the sizes of individual mini-halos to the mean free path of ionizing photons in the post-overlap Universe. The goal of such simulations is to include enough realistic physics to accurately model the formation of early struct…
We introduce a new code for computing time-dependent continuum radiative transfer and non-equilibrium ionization states in static density fields with periodic boundaries. Our code solves the moments of the radiative transfer equation, closed by an Eddingtion tensor computed using a long characteristics method. We show that pure (i.e., not source-centered) short characteristics and the optically-thin approximation are inappropriate for computing Eddington factors for the problem of cosmological reionization. We evolve the non-equilibrium ionization field via an efficient and accurate (errors <1…
We study the evolution of ionization fronts around the first proto-galaxies by using high resolution numerical cosmological (Lambda+CDM model) simulations and Monte Carlo radiative transfer methods. We present the numerical scheme in detail and show the results of test runs from which we conclude that the scheme is both fast and accurate. As an example of interesting cosmological application, we study the reionization produced by a stellar source of total mass M=2 10^8 M_\odot turning on at z=12, located at a node of the cosmic web. The study includes a Spectral Energy Distribution of a zero-m…
In this talk I will present a model for primordial galaxy formation. In particular, I will review the feedback effects that regulate the process: (i) radiative (i.e. ionizing and H_2-photodissociating photons) and (ii) stellar (i.e. SN explosions) feedback produced by massive stars. I will show the results of a model for galaxy formation and IGM reionization, which includes a self-consistent treatment of the above feedback effects. Finally, I will describe a Monte Carlo method for the radiative transfer of ionizing photons through the IGM and discuss its application to the IGM reionization pro…
We study the inhomogeneous reionization in a critical density CDM universe due to stellar sources, including Population III objects. The spatial distribution of the sources is obtained from high resolution numerical N-body simulations. We calculate the source properties taking into account a self-consistent treatment of both radiative (ie ionizing and H2 -photodissociating photons) and stellar (ie SN explosions) feedbacks regulated by massive stars. This allows us to describe the topology of the ionized and dissociated regions at various cosmic epochs and derive the evolution of H, He, and H2 …
After considering the effects of negative feedback on the process of star formation, we explore the relationship between star formation process and the associated feedback, by investigating how the mechanical feedback from supernovae(SNe) and radiative feedback from luminous objects regulate the star formation rate and therefore affect the cosmic reionization.Based on our present knowledge of the negative feedback theory and some numerical simulations, we construct an analytic model in the framework of the Lambda cold dark matter model. In certain parameter regions, our model can explain some …
Sterile neutrinos are one of the most promising Warm Dark Matter candidates. By considering their radiative- and pion-decay channels, we derive the allowed contribution of sterile neutrinos to the X-ray, optical and near-infrared cosmic backgrounds. The X-ray background puts a strong constraint on the mass of radiatively decaying neutrinos (m <= 14 keV), whereas the allowed mass range for pion-decay neutrinos (for a particle lifetime > 4 X 10^17 s) is 150 <= m/MeV <= 500. Taking into account these constraints, we find that sterile neutrinos do not significantly contribute to the optical and ne…
Full radiative transfer in 3D space has been solved to pursue the reionization history in an inhomogeneous universe. It has been shown that the reionization of an inhomogeneous universe is not a prompt event, but a fairly slow process. Also, QSO absorption line systems are simulated with using the results of radiative transfer calculations. Ly$α$ continuum depression implies that the metagalactic UV intensity decreases rapidly with $z$ at $z>5$, and the reionization must have taken place between $z=6$ and 10. Finally, it is stressed that H$α$ forest is a more powerful tool to probe the reioniz…
We calculate the secondary anisotropies in the CMB produced by inhomogeneous reionization from simulations in which the effects of radiative and stellar feedback effects on galaxy formation have been included. This allows to self-consistently determine the beginning ($z_i\approx 30$), the duration ($ δz\approx 20$) and the (nonlinear) evolution of the reionization process for a critical density CDM model. In addition, from the simulated spatial distribution of ionized regions, we are able to calculate the evolution of the two-point ionization correlation function, $C_χ$, and obtain the power s…
We present a new hybrid code for large volume, high resolution simulations of cosmic reionization, which utilizes a N-body algorithm for dark matter, physically motivated prescriptions for baryons and star formation, and an adaptive ray tracing algorithm for radiative transfer of ionizing photons. Two test simulations each with 3 billion particles and 400 million rays in a 50 Mpc/h box have been run to give initial results. Halos are resolved down to virial temperatures of 10^4 K for the redshift range of interest in order to robustly model star formation and clumping factors. This is essentia…
During the epoch of reionization, Ly-alpha photons emitted by the first stars can couple the neutral hydrogen spin temperature to the kinetic gas temperature, providing the opportunity to observe the gas in emission or absorption in the 21-cm line. Given the bright foregrounds, it is of prime importance to determine precisely the fluctuations signature of the signal, to be able to extract it by its correlation power. LICORICE is a Monte-Carlo radiative transfer code, coupled to the dynamics via an adaptative Tree-SPH code. We present here the Ly-alpha part of the implementation, and validate i…
Energy released by a small fraction of the baryons in the universe, which condensed out of while the IGM was cold, dark, and neutral,reheated and reionized it, exposing gas clouds within it to the glare of ionizing radiation. The first gas dynamical simulations of the photoevaporation of an intergalactic cloud by a quasar, including radiative transfer, are presented, along with a few observational diagnostics.
The reionization history of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at high redshift (z > 6) was likely strongly shaped by several global feedback processes. Because the earliest ionizing sources formed at the locations of the rare density peaks, their spatial distribution was strongly clustered. Here we demonstrate that this clustering significantly boosts the impact of feedback processes operating at high redshift. We build a semi-analytical model to include feedback and clustering simultaneously, and apply this model to the suppression of star-formation in minihalos due to photoionization. The model…
We reanalyze the photoevaporation problem of subgalactic objects irradiated by UVB radiation in a reionized universe. For the purpose, we perform three-dimensional radiation smoothed-particle-hydrodynamics calculations, where the radiative transfer is solved by a direct method and also the non-equilibrium chemistry of primordial gas including H$_2$ molecules is incorporated. Attention is concentrated on radiative transfer effects against UVB for the formation of subgalactic objects with $T_{\rm vir}\la 10^4$K. We consider the reionization model with $z_{\rm reion} \approx 7$ and also the earli…
Recent observations of z~6 quasars and the cosmic microwave background imply a complex history to cosmic reionization. Such a history requires some form of feedback to extend reionization over a long time interval, but the nature of the feedback and how rapidly it operates remain highly uncertain. Here we focus on one aspect of this complexity: which physical processes can cause the global ionized fraction to evolve non-monotonically with cosmic time? We consider a range of mechanisms and conclude that double reionization is much less likely than a long, but still monotonic, ionization history…
We present the first calculation of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect due to the inhomogeneus reionization of the universe based on detailed large-scale radiative transfer simulations of reionization. The resulting sky power spectra peak at l=2000-8000 with maximum values of l(l+1)C_l/(2pi)_{max}~4-7x10^{-13}. The scale roughly corresponds to the typical ionized bubble sizes observed in our simulations, of ~5-20 Mpc. The kSZ anisotropy signal from reionization dominates the primary CMB signal above l=3000. At large scales the patchy kSZ signal depends only on the source efficiencies.…
We investigate the ability of primordial gas clouds to retain molecular hydrogen (H_2) during the initial phase of the reionization epoch. We find that before the Stromgren spheres of the individual ionizing sources overlap, the UV background below the ionization threshold is able to penetrate large clouds and suppress their H_2 abundance. The consequent lack of H_2 cooling could prevent the collapse and fragmentation of clouds with virial temperatures T_vir < 10^4 K (or masses 10^8 Msun [(1+z_vir)/10]^{-3/2}). This negative feedback on structure-formation arises from the very first ionizing s…
We describe an approach for incorporating radiative transfer into 3D hydrodynamic cosmological simulations. The method, while approximate, allows for a self-consistent treatment of self-shielding and shadowing, diffuse and point sources of radiation, and frequency dependent transfer. Applications include photodissociation, photoheating, and photoionization of the IGM.
We present an efficient method to generate large simulations of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) without the need for a full 3-dimensional radiative transfer code. Large dark-matter-only simulations are post-processed to produce maps of the redshifted 21cm emission from neutral hydrogen. Dark matter haloes are embedded with sources of radiation whose properties are either based on semi-analytical prescriptions or derived from hydrodynamical simulations. These sources could either be stars or power-law sources with varying spectral indices. Assuming spherical symmetry, ionized bubbles are create…
We present the first large-scale radiative transfer simulations of cosmic reionization, in a simulation volume of (100/h Mpc)^3, while at the same time capturing the dwarf galaxies which are primarily responsible for reionization. We achieve this by combining the results from extremely large, cosmological, N-body simulations with a new, fast and efficient code for 3D radiative transfer, C^2-Ray. The resulting electron-scattering optical depth is in good agreement with the first-year WMAP polarization data. We show that reionization clearly proceeded in an inside-out fashion, with the high-dens…
If the COBE detection of CMB fluctuations is used to normalize the power spectrum of primordial density fluctuations in a cold dark matter--dominated universe, early reionization is likely to result in a substantial diminution of primordial temperature fluctuations on degree scales. I argue that the reionization may be non--Gaussian because of feedback effects. Secondary fluctuations on arc--minute scales provide an important probe of the efficiency of rescattering.
The Cosmic Dark Ages and the Epoch of Reionization constitute a crucial missing link in our understanding of the evolution of the intergalactic medium and the formation and evolution of galaxies. Due to the complex nature of this global process it is best studied through large-scale numerical simulations. This presents considerable computational challenges. The dominant contributors of ionizing radiation were dwarf galaxies. These tiny galaxies must be resolved in very large cosmological volumes in order to derive their clustering properties and the corresponding observational signatures corre…
We present detailed predictions for the redshifted 21cm signal from the epoch of reionization. These predictions are obtained from radiative transfer calculations on the results of large scale (100/h Mpc), high dynamic range, cosmological simulations. We consider several scenarios for the reionization history, of both early and extended reionization. From the simulations we construct and analyze a range of observational characteristics, from the global signal, via detailed images and spectra, to statistical representations of rms fluctuations, angular power spectra, and probability distributio…
Feedback effects due to massive stars and supernovae in the first objects are shown to strongly regulate both galaxy formation/evolution and the reionization process. Here we review the most important ones in some detail. We discuss how Type II supernovae can be used as tracers of the first objects and detected with NGST, for which we predict supernova number counts including the effects of gravitational lensing. Preliminary results on the formation of dust in the ejecta of supernovae of primordial composition are also presented. We finally turn to the consideration of the process of inhomogen…
We show that the process of photoionizing a gas of atomic hydrogen and helium by line radiation whose energy is slightly above the helium single-ionization threshold is unstable if the helium fraction by number is less than approximately one half. However, in the two scenarios we consider here, based on the Decaying Dark Matter (DDM) model of cosmological reionization, there is no significant growth. In the first scenario we consider ionization and recombination to be approximately in equilibrium. This is relevant to high photon flux rates and early reionization, but in that case the heating i…
We show that radiative feedback due to reionization has a pronounced effect on the extent of mechanical feedback due to galactic outflows. The photoionization of the Intergalactic Medium (IGM) suppresses low-mass galaxy formation by photoheating the gas and limiting atomic line cooling. The number of low-mass galaxies is central for the enrichment of the IGM as these objects have the capacity to enrich a significant fraction (by volume) of the Universe. We use a modified version of our galactic outflow model, combined with a simple criterion for suppression, to investigate the potential impact…
Recent observations on the cosmic microwave background by Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe(WMAP) strongly suggest that the reionization of the universe took place quite early (z \sim 17). On the other hand, it has been pointed out that the cold dark matter cosmology suffers from the substructure problem that subgalactic halos are overproduced than the observed dwarf galaxies in the Local Group. In this paper, as a potential mechanism to solve this problem, we consider the feedback effects of the early reionization on the formation of small-scale structures. For this purpose, we perform 3D …
In hierarchical models of structure formation, an early cosmic UV background (UVB) is produced by the small (T_vir < 10^4 K) halos that collapse before reionization. The UVB at energies below 13.6eV suppresses the formation of stars or black holes inside small halos, by photo-dissociating their only cooling agent, molecular H2. We self-consistently compute the buildup of the early UVB in Press-Schechter models, coupled with H2 photo-dissociation both in the intergalactic medium (IGM), and inside virialized halos. We find that the intergalactic H2 has a negligible effect on the UVB, both becaus…
We use a semi-analytical model to study the impact of reionization, and the associated radiative feedback, on galaxy formation. Two feedback models have been considered: (i) a standard prescription, according to which star formation is totally suppressed in galaxies with circular velocity below a critical threshold (model CF06) and (ii) a characterization based on the filtering scale (model G00), allowing for a gradual reduction of the gas available for star formation in low-mass galaxies. In model CF06 reionization starts at z ~ 15-20, is 85% complete by z ~ 10; at the same z, the ionized fra…
The first, self-consistent calculations of the cosmological H_2 dissociating UV background produced during the epoch of reionization (EOR) by the sources of reionization are presented. Large-scale radiative transfer simulations of reionization trace the impact of all the ionizing starlight on the IGM from all the sources in our simulation volume down to dwarf galaxies of mass ~ 10^8 solar mass, identified by very high-resolution N-body simulations, including the self-regulating effect of IGM photoheating on dwarf galaxy formation. The UV continuum emitted below 13.6 eV by each source is then t…
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 volume of the universe in our simulation without losing hte important small scale effects from galaxies. Here we have taken an approach that uses clumping factors derived from small scale simulations to approximate the radiative transfer on the sub-cell scales. Using this technique, we can cover a simulation size up to $1280 h^{-1} Mpc$ with $10 h^{-1} Mpc$ cells…
We use numerical simulations of cosmic reionization and radiative processes related to the HI 21 cm emission line to produce synthetic radio maps as seen by next generation radio telescopes that will operate at low radio frequencies (e.g. LOFAR). Two different scenarios, in which the end of reionization occurs early (z approx 13) or late (z approx 8) depending on the Initial Mass Function (IMF) of the first stars and ionizing photon escape fraction, have been explored. For each of these models we produce synthetic HI 21 cm emission maps by convolving the simulation outputs with the provisional…
(Abridged) Using ab initio cosmological Eulerian adaptive mesh refinement radiation hydrodynamical calculations, we discuss how very massive stars start the process of cosmological reionization. The models include non-equilibrium primordial gas chemistry and cooling processes and accurate radiation transport in the Case B approximation using adaptively ray traced photon packages, retaining the time derivative in the transport equation. Supernova feedback is modeled by thermal explosions triggered at parsec scales. All calculations resolve the local Jeans length by at least 16 grid cells at all…
We examine the effect of inhomogeneous reionization on the galaxy power spectrum and the consequences for probing dark energy. To model feedback during reionization, we apply an ansatz setting the galaxy overdensity proportional to the underlying ionization field. Thus, inhomogeneous reionization may leave an imprint in the galaxy power spectrum. We evolve this imprint to low redshift and use the Fisher-matrix formalism to assess the effect on parameter estimation. We show that a combination of low- (z=0.3) and high- (z=3) redshift galaxy surveys can constrain the size of cosmological HII regi…
Analytical approaches to galaxy formation and reionization are based on the mathematical problem of random walks with barriers. The statistics of a single random walk can be used to calculate one-point distributions ranging from the mass function of virialized halos to the distribution of ionized bubble sizes during reionization. However, an analytical calculation of two-point correlation functions or of spatially-dependent feedback processes requires the joint statistics of random walks at two different points. An accurate analytical expression for the statistics of two correlated random walk…
The first, self-consistent calculations are presented of the cosmological, H2-dissociating UV background produced during the epoch of reionization by the sources of reionization. Large-scale radiative transfer simulations of reionization trace the impact of all the ionizing starlight on the IGM from all the sources in our simulation volume down to dwarf galaxies of mass ~10^8 Msun, identified by very high-resolution N-body simulations, including the self-regulating effect of IGM photoheating on dwarf galaxy formation. The UV continuum emitted below 13.6 eV by each source is then transferred th…
We investigate the effect of radiative feedback on the star formation process using radiation hydrodynamical simulations. We repeat the previous hydrodynamical star cluster formation simulations of Bate et al., and Bate & Bonnell, but we use a realistic gas equation of state and radiative transfer in the flux-limited diffusion approximation rather than the original barotropic equation of state. Whereas star formation in the barotropic simulations continued unabated until the simulation was stopped, we find that radiative feedback essentially terminates the production of new objects after rough…
We present first results from three-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations of the high redshift formation of dwarf galaxies. The simulations use an Eulerian adaptive mesh refinement technique to follow the non-equilibrium chemistry of hydrogen and helium with cosmological initial conditions drawn from a popular Lambda-dominated CDM model. We include the effects of reionization using a uniform radiation field, a phenomenological description of the effect of star formation and, in a separate simulation, the effects of stellar feedback. The results highlight the effects of stellar feedback and phot…
