Reionization histories of Milky Way mass halos
- Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Physics Department, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305 (United States)
We investigate the connection between the reionization era and the present-day universe by examining the mass reionization histories of z = 0 dark matter halos. In a 600{sup 3} Mpc{sup 3} volume, we combine a dark matter N-body simulation with a three-dimensional seminumerical reionization model. This tags each particle with a reionization redshift, so that individual present-day halos can be connected to their reionization histories and environments. We find that the vast majority of present-day halos with masses larger than ∼ few × 10{sup 11} M {sub ☉} reionize earlier than the rest of the universe. We also find significant halo-to-halo diversity in mass reionization histories, and find that in realistic inhomogeneous models, the material within a given halo is not expected to reionize at the same time. In particular, the scatter in reionization times within individual halos is typically larger than the scatter among halos. From our fiducial reionization model, we find that the typical 68% scatter in reionization times within halos is ∼115 Myr for 10{sup 12±0.25} M {sub ☉} halos, decreasing slightly to ∼95 Myr for 10{sup 15±0.25} M {sub ☉} halos. We find a mild correlation between reionization history and environment: halos with shorter reionization histories are typically in more clustered environments, with the strongest trend on a scale of ∼20 Mpc. Material in Milky Way mass halos with short reionization histories is preferentially reionized in relatively large H II regions, implying reionization mostly by sources external to the progenitors of the present-day halo. We investigate the impact on our results of varying the reionization model parameters, which span a range of reionization scenarios with varying timing and morphology.
- OSTI ID:
- 22357091
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 785, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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