Cosmic Reionization on Computers: The Evolution of Ionizing Background and Mean Free Path

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution simulations to analyze the evolution of the ionizing background and mean free path during cosmic reionization, revealing significant fluctuations and biases related to galaxy environments and neutral hydrogen structures.

Contribution

It provides detailed insights into the relationship between ionizing background fluctuations, mean free path evolution, and the impact of dense structures during reionization, using coupled radiative transfer simulations.

Findings

Ionizing background distribution shows significant skewness and fluctuations at z≈5.

The mean free path exhibits a break coinciding with the disappearance of neutral islands.

Biases in MFP measurements depend on proximity to massive halos and neutral hydrogen structures.

Abstract

Observations of the end stages of reionization indicate that at $z\approx 5-6$, the ionizing background is not uniform and the mean free path (MFP) changes drastically. As MFP is closely related to the distribution of Lyman Limit Systems and Damped Lyman-alpha Systems (LLSs and DLAs, or ionizing photon "sinks"), it is important to understand them. In this study, we utilize the CROC simulations, which have both sufficient spatial resolution to resolve galaxy formation and LLSs alongside a fully coupled radiative transfer to simulate the reionization processes. In our analysis, we connect the evolution of the ionizing background and the MFP. We analyze two CROC boxes with distinct reionization histories and find that the distribution of ionizing background in both simulations display significant skewness that deviate from log-normal. Further, the ionizing background in late reionization box still displays significant fluctuations ($\sim 40\%$) at $z\approx5$. We also measure the MFP along sightlines that start 0.15 pMpc away from the center of potential quasar hosting halos. The evolution of the MFP measured from these sightlines exhibits a break that coincides with when all the neutral islands disappear in the reionization history of each box (the `ankle' of the reionization history of the box). In the absence of LLSs, the MFP will be biased high by $\approx 20\%$ at $z\approx 5$. We also compare the MFP measured in random sightlines. We find that at $z\approx 5$ the MFP measured in sightlines that start from massive halos are systematically smaller by $\approx 10\%$ compared with the MFP measured in random sightlines. We attribute this difference to the concentration of dense structures within 1 pMpc from massive halos. Our findings highlight the importance of high fidelity models in the interpretation of observational measurements.