skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Self-consistent Modeling of Reionization in Cosmological Hydrodynamical Simulations

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [2]
  1. Max Planck Inst. for Astronomy, Heidelberg (Germany)
  2. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The ultraviolet background (UVB) emitted by quasars and galaxies governs the ionization and thermal state of the intergalactic medium (IGM), regulates the formation of high-redshift galaxies, and is thus a key quantity for modeling cosmic reionization. The vast majority of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations implement the UVB via a set of spatially uniform photoionization and photoheating rates derived from UVB synthesis models. In this paper, we show that simulations using canonical UVB rates reionize and, perhaps more importantly, spuriously heat the IGM, much earlier ($$z\sim 15$$) than they should. This problem arises because at $$z\gt 6$$, where observational constraints are nonexistent, the UVB amplitude is far too high. We introduce a new methodology to remedy this issue, and we generate self-consistent photoionization and photoheating rates to model any chosen reionization history. Following this approach, we run a suite of hydrodynamical simulations of different reionization scenarios and explore the impact of the timing of reionization and its concomitant heat injection on the thermal state of the IGM. We present a comprehensive study of the pressure smoothing scale of IGM gas, illustrating its dependence on the details of both hydrogen and helium reionization, and argue that it plays a fundamental role in interpreting Lyα forest statistics and the thermal evolution of the IGM. The premature IGM heating we have uncovered implies that previous work has likely dramatically overestimated the impact of photoionization feedback on galaxy formation, which sets the minimum halo mass able to form stars at high redshifts. Finally, we make our new UVB photoionization and photoheating rates publicly available for use in future simulations.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR); USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany); German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1379770
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 837, Issue 2; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 59 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (185)

Radiative Transfer Effects during Photoheating of the Intergalactic Medium journal July 1999
Detecting the rise and fall of the First Stars by Their Impact on Cosmic Reionization journal August 2012
Nyx: A MASSIVELY PARALLEL AMR CODE FOR COMPUTATIONAL COSMOLOGY journal February 2013
Connecting Reionization to the Local Universe journal September 2009
On dwarf elliptical galaxies and the faint blue counts journal March 1992
New measurements of the ionizing ultraviolet background over 2 < z < 5 and implications for hydrogen reionization journal October 2013
Detection of extended He ii reionization in the temperature evolution of the intergalactic medium★: IGM temperatures over 2 < z < 5 journal November 2010
Evidence of patchy hydrogen reionization from an extreme Lyα trough below redshift six journal January 2015
The Evolution of Optical Depth in the Lyα Forest: Evidence Against Reionization at z ∼6 journal June 2007
The imprint of reionization on the star formation histories of dwarf galaxies journal May 2015
The thermal history of the intergalactic medium down to redshift z = 1.5: a new curvature measurement journal May 2014
Radiative transfer through the intergalactic medium journal March 2004
A consistent determination of the temperature of the intergalactic medium at redshift 〈z〉 = 2.4 journal January 2014
The observed ionization rate of the intergalactic medium and the ionizing emissivity at z >= 5: evidence for a photon-starved and extended epoch of reionization journal November 2007
The Lyman a forest opacity and the metagalactic hydrogen ionization rate at z   2-4 journal March 2005
Photoheating and the fate of hard photons during the reionization of He ii by quasars journal May 2009
Possible evidence for an inverted temperature–density relation in the intergalactic medium from the flux distribution of the Lyα forest journal May 2008
Near-field limits on the role of faint galaxies in cosmic reionization journal June 2014
The Quenching of the Ultra-Faint Dwarf Galaxies in the Reionization era journal November 2014
A Universal Angular Momentum Profile for Galactic Halos journal July 2001
Measurements of the ultraviolet background at 4.6 < z < 6.4 using the quasar proximity effect★: Proximity-effect measurements of the UVB at high redshift journal March 2011
THE COSMOLOGICAL IMPACT OF LUMINOUS TeV BLAZARS. II. REWRITING THE THERMAL HISTORY OF THE INTERGALACTIC MEDIUM journal May 2012
AGN-driven helium reionization and the incidence of extended He iii regions at redshift z > 3 journal November 2014
LARGE OPACITY VARIATIONS IN THE HIGH-REDSHIFT LY α FOREST: THE SIGNATURE OF RELIC TEMPERATURE FLUCTUATIONS FROM PATCHY REIONIZATION journal November 2015
The effect of fluctuations on the helium-ionizing background journal November 2013
Large fluctuations in the hydrogen-ionizing background and mean free path following the epoch of reionization journal April 2016
Quasar ionization front Lyα emission in an inhomogeneous intergalactic medium journal February 2016
The impact of galactic winds from Lyman-break galaxies on the intergalactic medium journal March 2006
Suppressing the formation of dwarf galaxies via photoionization journal May 1992
Constraining the Evolution of the Ionizing Background and the Epoch of Reionization with z  ~ 6 Quasars. II. A Sample of 19 Quasars journal June 2006
A NEW CALCULATION OF THE IONIZING BACKGROUND SPECTRUM AND THE EFFECTS OF He II REIONIZATION journal September 2009
A Direct Precision Measurement of the Intergalactic Lyα Opacity at 2 ≤ z ≤ 4.2 journal July 2008
Dissecting the Properties of Optically Thick Hydrogen at the peak of Cosmic star Formation History journal September 2013
The global 21-centimeter background from high redshifts journal September 2006
The Growth of H ii Regions During Reionization journal September 2004
The intergalactic medium thermal history at redshift z = 1.7-3.2 from the Lyα forest: a comparison of measurements using wavelets and the flux distribution : The IGM thermal history at journal July 2012
Radiative feedback from an early X-ray background journal March 2003
Time‐dependent Ionization in Radiatively Cooling Gas journal February 2007
Effect of Reionization on Structure Formation in the Universe journal October 2000
Cosmic Reionization on Computers. i. Design and Calibration of Simulations journal September 2014
Probing the Universe with the Ly  forest -- I. Hydrodynamics of the low-density intergalactic medium journal May 1998
On the effect of the ionizing background on the Lyα forest autocorrelation function journal June 2014
Faint dwarfs as a test of DM models: WDM versus CDM journal February 2015
Radiative Transfer in a Clumpy Universe. II. The Ultraviolet Extragalactic Background journal April 1996
Radiative Transfer in a Clumpy Universe. iv. new Synthesis Models of the Cosmic Uv/X-Ray Background journal February 2012
Probing the thermal history of the intergalactic medium with Ly  absorption lines journal July 1998
Multi-scale initial conditions for cosmological simulations: Multi-scale initial conditions journal July 2011
BINARY QUASARS AT HIGH REDSHIFT. I. 24 NEW QUASAR PAIRS AT z ∼ 3-4 journal August 2010
Binary Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Evidence for Excess Clustering on Small Scales journal January 2006
Dwarf galaxies in voids: suppressing star formation with photoheating: Dwarf galaxies in voids journal August 2006
Galaxies on FIRE (Feedback In Realistic Environments): stellar feedback explains cosmologically inefficient star formation journal September 2014
CMB power spectrum parameter degeneracies in the era of precision cosmology journal April 2012
Equation of state of the photoionized intergalactic medium journal November 1997
Self-regulated reionization journal April 2007
A concordance model of the Lyman a forest at z= 1.95 journal July 2005
Cosmological Simulations with TreeSPH journal July 1996
Recombination Clumping Factor During Cosmic Reionization journal May 2014
An improved measurement of the flux distribution of the Ly  forest in QSO absorption spectra: the effect of continuum fitting, metal contamination and noise properties journal December 2007
Continuous statistics of the Ly  forest at 0 <z < 1.6: the mean flux, flux distribution and autocorrelation fromHST FOS spectra journal April 2007
Where Are the Missing Galactic Satellites? journal September 1999
Large‐Scale Simulations of Reionization journal March 2007
Galactic Wind Effects on the Lyα Absorption in the Vicinity of Galaxies journal February 2006
Characterizing the Pressure Smoothing Scale of the Intergalactic Medium journal October 2015
IGM CONSTRAINTS FROM THE SDSS-III/BOSS DR9 Lyα FOREST TRANSMISSION PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION journal January 2015
Efficient Computation of Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropies in Closed Friedmann‐Robertson‐Walker Models journal August 2000
Reionization Histories of Milky way mass Halos journal April 2014
A MEASUREMENT OF SMALL-SCALE STRUCTURE IN THE 2.2 ⩽ z ⩽ 4.2 Lyα FOREST journal June 2010
Quasar Proximity Zones and Patchy Reionization journal November 2007
The Lyman α forest in optically thin hydrodynamical simulations journal December 2014
Radiative Transfer in a Clumpy Universe. III. The Nature of Cosmological Ionizing Sources journal April 1999
Fossil Remnants of Reionization in the Halo of the Milky Way journal November 2008
Early Reionization by Miniquasars journal April 2004
HOW TO SEARCH FOR ISLANDS OF NEUTRAL HYDROGEN IN THE z ∼ 5.5 IGM journal January 2015
Leaving the dark ages with Amiga journal January 2015
A Measurement of the Temperature‐Density Relation in the Intergalactic Medium Using a New Lyα Absorption‐Line Fitting Method journal November 2001
Model-independent evidence in favour of an end to reionization by z ≈ 6 journal December 2014
Constraints on X-ray emissions from the reionization era: Constraints on X-ray emissions journal October 2012
The morphology of H II regions during reionization journal May 2007
He II REIONIZATION AND ITS EFFECT ON THE INTERGALACTIC MEDIUM journal March 2009
On the intergalactic temperature–density relation journal December 2015
Spectral analysis of the Ly  forest using wavelets journal May 2000
Gas around galaxy haloes: methodology comparisons using hydrodynamical simulations of the intergalactic medium journal October 2014
The effects of ultraviolet background correlations on Lyα forest flux statistics journal May 2004
The Lyα Forest from Gravitational Collapse in the Cold Dark Matter + Λ Model journal November 1996
Reionization of the Inhomogeneous Universe journal February 2000
Reionization and thermal evolution of a photoionized intergalactic medium journal January 1994
Dark Matter Substructure within Galactic Halos journal October 1999
A physical understanding of how reionization suppresses accretion on to dwarf haloes journal August 2014
Fully Coupled Simulation of Cosmic Reionization. i. Numerical Methods and Tests journal January 2015
High-Resolution Simulations of the Reionization of an Isolated Milky Way-M31 Galaxy pair journal October 2013
Cosmic Dawn (CoDa): the first radiation-hydrodynamics simulation of reionization and galaxy formation in the Local Universe journal August 2016
Reionization by Hard Photons. I. X‐Rays from the First Star Clusters journal June 2001
Mass loss of galaxies due to an ultraviolet background journal November 2008
The First data Release of the Kodiaq Survey journal September 2015
THE HST /ACS+WFC3 SURVEY FOR LYMAN LIMIT SYSTEMS. II. SCIENCE journal February 2013
Forged in fire: cusps, cores and baryons in low-mass dwarf galaxies journal October 2015
How to zoom: bias, contamination and Lagrange volumes in multimass cosmological simulations journal November 2013
Non-equilibirum ionization and cooling of metal-enriched gas in the presence of a photoionization background journal August 2013
The one-dimensional Ly α forest power spectrum from BOSS journal November 2013
The Kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'Dovich Effect as a Probe of the Physics of Cosmic Reionization: the Effect of Self-Regulated Reionization journal May 2013
Spatially adaptive radiation-hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation during cosmological reionization journal June 2015
Keeping the Universe ionized: photoheating and the clumping factor of the high-redshift intergalactic medium journal April 2009
Pressure support versus thermal broadening in the Lyman α forest - I. Effects of the equation of state on longitudinal structure journal March 2010
Pressure support versus thermal broadening in the Lyman α forest - II. Effects of the equation of state on transverse structure journal March 2010
Planck 2015 results : XIII. Cosmological parameters journal September 2016
Planck intermediate results : XLVI. Reduction of large-scale systematic effects in HFI polarization maps and estimation of the reionization optical depth journal December 2016
Scale-dependent bias in the baryonic-acoustic-oscillation-scale intergalactic neutral hydrogen journal April 2014
Baryons: What,When and Where? book January 2009
The photoheating of the intergalactic medium in synthesis models of the UV background journal May 2015
The Lyman α forest in a blazar-heated Universe: Lyman α forest in a blazar-heated Universe journal May 2012
Photoionization and the formation of dwarf galaxies journal February 1996
Baryon concentration in string wakes at Z   200: implications for galaxy formation and large-scale structure journal September 1986
Non-equilibrium chemistry and cooling in the diffuse interstellar medium - I. Optically thin regime journal April 2014
Non-equilibrium chemistry and cooling in the diffuse interstellar medium – II. Shielded gas journal June 2014
The Evolution of the Effective Equation of State of the Intergalactic Medium journal May 2000
A new Method to Directly Measure the Jeans Scale of the Intergalactic Medium Using Close Quasar Pairs journal September 2013
A Physical Upper Limit on the H [CSC]i[/CSC] Column Density of Gas Clouds journal November 2001
The thermal history of the intergalactic medium journal November 2000
The Baryon Cycle of Dwarf Galaxies: Dark, Bursty, Gas-Rich Polluters journal August 2014
The effect of feedback and reionization on star formation in low-mass dwarf galaxy haloes journal May 2013
Fully Coupled Simulation of Cosmic Reionization. ii. Recombinations, Clumping Factors, and the Photon Budget for Reionization journal June 2014
How does radiative feedback from an ultraviolet background impact reionization? journal May 2013
Physical Models of Galaxy Formation in a Cosmological Framework journal August 2015
The Evolution of Lyman Limit Absorption Systems to Redshift six journal September 2010
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE /COSMIC ORIGINS SPECTROGRAPH OBSERVATIONS OF THE QUASAR Q0302–003: PROBING THE He II REIONIZATION EPOCH AND QSO PROXIMITY EFFECTS journal March 2014
Detection of H[CLC]e[/CLC] [CSC]ii[/CSC] Reionization in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Sample journal August 2002
Constraints on Reionization from the Thermal History of the Intergalactic Medium journal February 2002
A wavelet analysis of the spectra of quasi-stellar objects journal October 2000
Hydrodynamic Simulations of Galaxy Formation. II. Photoionization and the Formation of Low-Mass Galaxies journal July 1996
Reionization scenarios and the temperature of the intergalactic medium journal September 2007
Models of the thermal evolution of the intergalactic medium after reionization journal May 2016
Non-equilibrium ionization states and cooling rates of photoionized enriched gas: Non-equilibrium ionization and cooling rates journal May 2011
Warm dark matter as a solution to the small scale crisis: New constraints from high redshift Lyman- α forest data journal August 2013
Cosmological and astrophysical constraints from the Lyman α forest flux probability distribution function journal October 2009
The impact of feedback from galaxy formation on the Lyman α transmitted flux journal December 2012
A model for cosmological simulations of galaxy formation physics journal October 2013
Dependence of the local reionization history on halo mass and environment: did Virgo reionize the Local Group? journal September 2007
Sweating the small stuff: simulating dwarf galaxies, ultra-faint dwarf galaxies, and their own tiny satellites journal August 2015
Chemical enrichment in cosmological, smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations journal October 2009
The birth of a galaxy – III. Propelling reionization with the faintest galaxies journal June 2014
Early and Extended Helium Reionization over more than 600 Million Years of Cosmic time journal July 2016
Near-zone sizes and the rest-frame extreme ultraviolet spectral index of the highest redshift quasars: The EUV spectral index of z ∼ 6 quasars journal February 2011
Planck 2015 results : XXIII. The thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect-cosmic infrared background correlation journal September 2016
A consistent determination of the temperature of the intergalactic medium at redshift (z) = 2.4 text January 2014
Dependence of the local reionization history on halo mass and environment: did Virgo reionize the Local Group? text January 2007
The photoheating of the intergalactic medium in synthesis models of the UV background text January 2015
The photoheating of the intergalactic medium in synthesis models of the UV background text January 2015
Warm dark matter as a solution to the small scale crisis: New constraints from high redshift Lyman-α forest data text January 2013
Cosmic Dawn (CoDa): the first radiation-hydrodynamics simulation of reionization and galaxy formation in the Local Universe text January 2016
The baryon cycle of dwarf galaxies: dark, bursty, gas-rich polluters text January 2014
Planck 2015 results : XVI. Isotropy and statistics of the CMB journal September 2016
Faint dwarfs as a test of DM models: WDM versus CDM text January 2015
Planck 2015 results : XXVI. The Second journal September 2016
Fossil remnants of reionization in the halo of the milky way text January 2008
An improved measurement of the flux distribution of the Ly-alpha forest in QSO absorption spectra: the effect of continuum fitting, metal contamination and noise properties text January 2007
Possible evidence for an inverted temperature-density relation in the intergalactic medium from the flux distribution of the Lyman-alpha forest text January 2007
Fossil remnants of reionization in the halo of the Milky Way text January 2008
Chemical enrichment in cosmological, smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulations text January 2009
Pressure Support vs. Thermal Broadening in the Lyman-alpha Forest I: Effects of the Equation of State on Longitudinal Structure text January 2009
The Evolution of Lyman Limit Absorption Systems to Redshift Six text January 2010
Detecting the Rise and Fall of the First Stars by Their Impact on Cosmic Reionization text January 2012
The Temperature-Density Relation in the Intergalactic Medium at Redshift =2.4 text January 2012
Non-Equilibirum ionisation and cooling of metal-enriched gas in the presence of a photo-ionisation background text January 2013
How to Zoom: Bias, Contamination, and Lagrange Volumes in Multimass Cosmological Simulations text January 2013
Fully-Coupled Simulation of Cosmic Reionization. I: Numerical Methods and Tests text January 2013
Reionization Histories of Milky Way Mass Halos text January 2013
The one-dimensional Ly-alpha forest power spectrum from BOSS text January 2013
A consistent determination of the temperature of the intergalactic medium at redshift z=2.4 text January 2013
Galaxies on FIRE (Feedback In Realistic Environments): Stellar Feedback Explains Cosmologically Inefficient Star Formation text January 2013
Recombination clumping factor during cosmic reionization text January 2013
Non-equilibrium chemistry and cooling in the diffuse interstellar medium - I. Optically thin regime text January 2014
Non-equilibrium chemistry and cooling in the diffuse interstellar medium - II. Shielded gas text January 2014
Near-Field Limits on the Role of Faint Galaxies in Cosmic Reionization text January 2014
Early and Extended Helium Reionization Over More Than 600 Million Years of Cosmic Time text January 2014
Model-independent evidence in favor of an end to reionization by z~6 text January 2014
Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters text January 2015
Planck intermediate results. XLVI. Reduction of large-scale systematic effects in HFI polarization maps and estimation of the reionization optical depth text January 2016
Effect of Reionization on the Structure Formation in the Universe text January 2000
A Measurement of the Temperature-Density Relation in the Intergalactic Medium Using a New Lyman-alpha Absorption Line Fitting Method text January 2000
A universal angular momentum profile for galactic halos text January 2000
Quasar Proximity Zones and Patchy Reionization text January 2007
Hydrodynamic Simulations of Galaxy Formation. II. Photoionization and the Formation of Low Mass Galaxies text January 1995
Equation of State of the Photoionized Intergalactic Medium text January 1996
Radiative Transfer in a Clumpy Universe: III. The Nature of Cosmological Ionizing Sources text January 1998
Radiative Transfer Effects during Photoheating of the Intergalactic Medium text January 1999

Cited By (36)

Supermassive black holes in the early universe journal April 2019
Spatial fluctuations of the intergalactic temperature–density relation after hydrogen reionization journal April 2018
The Local Group on FIRE: dwarf galaxy populations across a suite of hydrodynamic simulations journal May 2019
Evolution of the AGN UV luminosity function from redshift 7.5 journal June 2019
Simulating the effect of photoheating feedback during reionization journal June 2019
Consistent modelling of the meta-galactic UV background and the thermal/ionization history of the intergalactic medium journal January 2019
Effect of non-equilibrium ionization on derived physical conditions of the high-z intergalactic medium journal October 2019
Inhomogeneous reionization models in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations journal May 2019
Large Ly α opacity fluctuations and low CMB τ in models of late reionization with large islands of neutral hydrogen extending to z < 5.5 journal February 2019
Measurement of the small-scale structure of the intergalactic medium using close quasar pairs journal April 2017
A New Precision Measurement of the Small-scale Line-of-sight Power Spectrum of the Ly α Forest journal December 2017
A Fundamental Test for Galaxy Formation Models: Matching the Lyman- α Absorption Profiles of Galactic Halos Over Three Decades in Distance journal May 2018
Modeling the He ii Transverse Proximity Effect: Constraints on Quasar Lifetime and Obscuration journal July 2018
A New Measurement of the Temperature–density Relation of the IGM from Voigt Profile Fitting journal September 2018
New Constraints on IGM Thermal Evolution from the Ly α Forest Power Spectrum journal February 2019
Dancing in the Dark: Uncertainty in Ultrafaint Dwarf Galaxy Predictions from Cosmological Simulations journal March 2019
The Evolution of the He ii-ionizing Background at Redshifts 2.3 < z < 3.8 Inferred from a Statistical Sample of 24 HST /COS He ii Ly α Absorption Spectra journal April 2019
A Novel Statistical Method for Measuring the Temperature–Density Relation in the IGM Using the b – N H i Distribution of Absorbers in the Ly α Forest journal May 2019
Anomaly in the Opacity of the Post-reionization Intergalactic Medium in the Ly α and Ly β Forest journal August 2019
Mapping Quasar Light Echoes in 3D with Ly α Forest Tomography journal September 2019
New synthesis models of consistent extragalactic background light over cosmic time journal January 2019
How low does it go? Too few Galactic satellites with standard reionization quenching journal July 2019
Local photoionization feedback effects on galaxies journal September 2019
Imprints of temperature fluctuations on the z ∼ 5 Lyman-α forest: a view from radiation-hydrodynamic simulations of reionization journal October 2019
The power spectrum of the Lyman-α Forest at z < 0.5 journal February 2019
Supermassive black holes in the early Universe journal December 2015
New constraints on the free-streaming of warm dark matter from intermediate and small scale Lyman-α forest data text January 2017
Dark-ages reionization and galaxy formation simulation – XVI. The thermal memory of reionization journal August 2019
Consistent modelling of the meta-galactic UV background and the thermal/ionization history of the intergalactic medium text January 2019
Supermassive black holes in the early universe journal March 2004
New Constraints on the free-streaming of warm dark matter from intermediate and small scale Lyman-$α$ forest data text January 2017
Spatial fluctuations of the intergalactic temperature-density relation after hydrogen reionization text January 2018
A New Measurement of the Temperature Density Relation of the IGM From Voigt Profile Fitting text January 2017
New synthesis models of consistent extragalactic background light over cosmic time text January 2018
The Local Group on FIRE: Dwarf galaxy populations across a suite of hydrodynamic simulations text January 2018
Inhomogeneous Reionization Models in Cosmological Hydrodynamical Simulations text January 2018

Linked Research (1)

Similar Records

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
early universe
evolution of galaxies
formation of galaxies
intergalactic medium
large-scale structure of universe
numerical methods