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Title: COSMIC REIONIZATION ON COMPUTERS: NUMERICAL AND PHYSICAL CONVERGENCE

Abstract

In this paper I show that simulations of reionization performed under the Cosmic Reionization On Computers project do converge in space and mass, albeit rather slowly. A fully converged solution (for a given star formation and feedback model) can be determined at a level of precision of about 20%, but such a solution is useless in practice, since achieving it in production-grade simulations would require a large set of runs at various mass and spatial resolutions, and computational resources for such an undertaking are not yet readily available. In order to make progress in the interim, I introduce a weak convergence correction factor in the star formation recipe, which allows one to approximate the fully converged solution with finite-resolution simulations. The accuracy of weakly converged simulations approaches a comparable, ∼20% level of precision for star formation histories of individual galactic halos and other galactic properties that are directly related to star formation rates, such as stellar masses and metallicities. Yet other properties of model galaxies, for example, their H i masses, are recovered in the weakly converged runs only within a factor of 2.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [2]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Particle Astrophysics Center, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, IL 60510 (United States)
  2. (United States)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
22518497
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Astrophysical Journal
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 821; Journal Issue: 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; ACCURACY; COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS; COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION; CONVERGENCE; CORRECTIONS; COSMOLOGY; GALAXIES; MASS; METALLICITY; SPACE; SPATIAL RESOLUTION; STAR EVOLUTION; STARS; UNIVERSE

Citation Formats

Gnedin, Nickolay Y., E-mail: gnedin@fnal.gov, Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, and Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637. COSMIC REIONIZATION ON COMPUTERS: NUMERICAL AND PHYSICAL CONVERGENCE. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.3847/0004-637X/821/1/50.
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Gnedin, Nickolay Y., E-mail: gnedin@fnal.gov, Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, & Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637. COSMIC REIONIZATION ON COMPUTERS: NUMERICAL AND PHYSICAL CONVERGENCE. United States. https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/821/1/50
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Gnedin, Nickolay Y., E-mail: gnedin@fnal.gov, Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, and Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637. 2016. "COSMIC REIONIZATION ON COMPUTERS: NUMERICAL AND PHYSICAL CONVERGENCE". United States. https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/821/1/50.
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@article{osti_22518497,
title = {COSMIC REIONIZATION ON COMPUTERS: NUMERICAL AND PHYSICAL CONVERGENCE},
author = {Gnedin, Nickolay Y., E-mail: gnedin@fnal.gov and Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 and Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637},
abstractNote = {In this paper I show that simulations of reionization performed under the Cosmic Reionization On Computers project do converge in space and mass, albeit rather slowly. A fully converged solution (for a given star formation and feedback model) can be determined at a level of precision of about 20%, but such a solution is useless in practice, since achieving it in production-grade simulations would require a large set of runs at various mass and spatial resolutions, and computational resources for such an undertaking are not yet readily available. In order to make progress in the interim, I introduce a weak convergence correction factor in the star formation recipe, which allows one to approximate the fully converged solution with finite-resolution simulations. The accuracy of weakly converged simulations approaches a comparable, ∼20% level of precision for star formation histories of individual galactic halos and other galactic properties that are directly related to star formation rates, such as stellar masses and metallicities. Yet other properties of model galaxies, for example, their H i masses, are recovered in the weakly converged runs only within a factor of 2.},
doi = {10.3847/0004-637X/821/1/50},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22518497}, journal = {Astrophysical Journal},
issn = {0004-637X},
number = 1,
volume = 821,
place = {United States},
year = {Sun Apr 10 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Sun Apr 10 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}
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Journal Article:
https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/821/1/50
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Works referencing / citing this record:

Warm Dark Matter and Cosmic Reionization
journal, January 2018

Constraining the Tail End of Reionization Using Ly α Transmission Spikes
journal, April 2019

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