Lyman-$\alpha$ as a tracer of cosmic reionisation in the SPHINX radiation-hydrodynamics cosmological simulation

TL;DR

This study uses advanced radiation-hydrodynamics simulations to analyze Ly$ extalpha$ emission as a probe of cosmic reionisation, showing how IGM absorption affects observable properties of early galaxies.

Contribution

First comprehensive simulation-based analysis of Ly$ extalpha$ emitters during reionisation, capturing both large-scale reionisation and small-scale galaxy properties.

Findings

Ly$ extalpha$ luminosity suppression correlates with IGM neutral fraction.

Internal Ly$ extalpha$ line shifts reduce IGM absorption effects.

Deep surveys could detect many LAEs even when IGM is 50% neutral.

Abstract

The Ly$\alpha$ emission line is one of the most promising probes of cosmic reionisation but isolating the signature of a change in the ionisation state of the IGM is challenging because of intrinsic evolution and internal radiation transfer effects. We present the first study of the evolution of Ly$\alpha$ emitters (LAE) during the epoch of reionisation based on a full radiation-hydrodynamics cosmological simulation that is able to capture both the large-scale process of reionisation and the small-scale properties of galaxies. We predict the Ly$\alpha$ emission of galaxies in the $10^3$ cMpc$^3$ SPHINX simulation at $6\leq z\leq9$ by computing the full Ly$\alpha$ radiation transfer from ISM to IGM scales. SPHINX is able to reproduce many observational constraints such as the UV/Ly$\alpha$ luminosity functions and stellar mass functions at z $\geq$ 6 for the dynamical range probed by our simulation ($M_{\rm 1500}\gtrsim-18$, $L_{\rm Ly\alpha}\lesssim10^{42}$ erg/s, $M_{\star}\lesssim10^9$ M$_{\odot}$). As intrinsic Ly$\alpha$ emission and internal Ly$\alpha$ escape fractions barely evolve from $z=6$ to 9, the observed suppression of Ly$\alpha$ luminosities with increasing redshift is fully attributed to IGM absorption. For most observable galaxies ($M_{\rm 1500}\lesssim-16$), the Ly$\alpha$ line profiles are slightly shifted to the red due to internal radiative transfer effects which mitigates the effect of IGM absorption. Overall, the enhanced Ly$\alpha$ suppression during reionisation traces the IGM neutral fraction $x_{\rm HI}$ well but the predicted amplitude of this reduction is a strong function of the Ly$\alpha$ peak shift, which is set at ISM/CGM scales. We find that a large number of LAEs could be detectable in very deep surveys during reionisation when $x_{\rm HI}$ is still $\approx 50\%$.