Introducing SAGUARO -- Simulating IGM Evolution and Environments At High Resolution: Setup and First Results

TL;DR

SAGUARO is a comprehensive suite of high-resolution simulations that models the IGM's evolution during reionization, capturing small-scale physics and various physical effects to improve understanding of cosmic reionization.

Contribution

It introduces a large, detailed simulation suite covering diverse IGM environments and physical effects, filling a gap in modeling small-scale reionization physics.

Findings

Detailed IGM gas dynamics and thermal structures are characterized.

The simulation suite reveals effects on reionization photon budget and Lyα transmission.

First results demonstrate the suite's capability to resolve key small-scale processes.

Abstract

Small-scale physics in the intergalactic medium (IGM) plays a crucial role in shaping the progress of cosmic reionization and several high-redshift observables that probe this period. Several recent studies have characterized the complex, dynamical response of the IGM to reionization down to kilo-parsec scales, including its effect on observables such as the Ly$\alpha$ forest. However, there has been no concentrated attempt to simulate and characterize these effects across the full parameter space of realistic large-scale IGM environments during reionization. To meet this need, we introduce the SAGUARO simulation suite, sub-titled ``Simulating IGM Evolution and Environments At High Resolution''. SAGUARO is a suite of over two hundred high-resolution, coupled radiative-hydrodynamics simulations of IGM gas dynamics during and after reionization. The suite spans a grid of photoionization rates, redshifts of reionization, and box-scale densities. We also simulate other physical effects, such as X-ray pre-heating, recombination radiation, baryon-dark matter free-streaming, and alternative dark matter cosmologies. Our suite includes box sizes of $2$ and $0.25$ $h^{-1}$Mpc, extending to volumes large enough to begin capturing halos above the atomic cooling limit and resolutions high enough to fully resolve the IGM Jeans scale in the cold, neutral universe. We present a detailed description of the setup and first results from SAGUARO, descriptions of the IGM gas dynamics and thermal structure, opacity, self-shielding properties, the effect of the IGM on the reionization photon budget, and the halo mass function, and Ly$\alpha$ transmission properties. SAGUARO will help facilitate detailed studies of small-scale IGM structure and its effects that will help inform the next generation of reionization simulations and data interpretation.