Constraining the Tail End of Reionization Using Ly α Transmission Spikes

Garaldi, Enrico; Gnedin, Nickolay Y.; Madau, Piero

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab12dc

Title: Constraining the Tail End of Reionization Using Ly α Transmission Spikes

Journal Article · Tue Apr 30 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab12dc· OSTI ID:1511706

^[1]; Gnedin, Nickolay Y. ^[2];

^[3]

Max Planck Inst. for Astrophysik, Garching (Germany); Univ. of Bonn (Germany)
Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States); Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
Univ. of California, Santa Cruz, CA (United States)

We study Lyα transmission spikes at z > 5 in synthetic quasar spectra and discuss their connection to the properties of the intergalactic medium and their ability to constrain reionization models. We use state-of-the-art radiation-hydrodynamic simulations from the Cosmic Reionization On Computers series to predict the number of transmission spikes as a function of redshift, both in the ideal case of infinite spectral resolution and in a realistic observational setting. Transmission spikes are produced in highly ionized underdense regions located in the vicinity of UV sources. We find that most of the predicted spikes are unresolved by current observations and show that our mock spectra are consistent with observations of the quasar ULAS J1120+0641 in about 15% of the realizations. The spike height correlates with both the gas density and the ionized fraction, but the former link is erased when synthetic spectra are smoothed to realistically achievable spectral resolutions. There exists a linear relationship between spike width and the extent of the associated underdense region, with a slope that is redshift dependent. In agreement with observations, the spike transmitted flux is suppressed at small distance from bright galaxies as these reside in overdense regions. We contest that this anticorrelation can be used to constrain large-scale density modes.

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Research Organization:: Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-07CH11359

OSTI ID:: 1511706

Report Number(s):: arXiv:1902.07713; FERMILAB-PUB-19-087-A; 1721114

Journal Information:: The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 876, Issue 1; ISSN 1538-4357

Publisher:: Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 11 works

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