The Opacity of the Intergalactic Medium During Reionization: Resolving Small-Scale Structure

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution simulations to analyze small-scale structures in the early, unheated intergalactic medium during reionization, revealing their impact on ionization front propagation and radiation mean free paths.

Contribution

It determines the resolution needed in cosmological simulations to accurately resolve small-scale IGM structures affecting reionization.

Findings

Converged results show mean free path of 3-15 Mpc at z=10.

Clumping factors range from 10 to 20 for specified ionization rates.

Resolution of dark matter particles below 50 Msun is necessary.

Abstract

Early in the reionization process, the intergalactic medium (IGM) would have been quite inhomogeneous on small scales, due to the low Jeans mass in the neutral IGM and the hierarchical growth of structure in a cold dark matter Universe. This small-scale structure acted as an important sink during the epoch of reionization, impeding the progress of the ionization fronts that swept out from the first sources of ionizing radiation. Here we present results of high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamics simulations that resolve the cosmological Jeans mass of the neutral IGM in representative volumes several Mpc across. The adiabatic hydrodynamics we follow are appropriate in an unheated IGM, before the gas has had a chance to respond to the photoionization heating. Our focus is determination of the resolution required in cosmological simulations in order to sufficiently sample and resolve small-scale structure regulating the opacity of an unheated IGM. We find that a dark matter particle mass of m_dm < 50 Msun and box size of L > 1 Mpc are required. With our converged results we show how the mean free path of ionizing radiation and clumping factor of ionized hydrogen depends upon the ultraviolet background (UVB) flux and redshift. We find, for example at z = 10, clumping factors typically of 10 to 20 for an ionization rate of Gamma ~ 0.3 - 3 x 1e-12 s^-1, with corresponding mean free paths of ~ 3 - 15 Mpc, extending previous work on the evolving mean free path to considerably smaller scales and earlier times.