Late-end reionization with aton-he: towards constraints from Ly α emitters observed with JWST

Shikhar, Asthana,; Martin G., Haehnelt,; Girish, Kulkarni,; Dominique, Aubert,; James S., Bolton,; Laura C., Keating,

Abstract

We present a new suite of late-end reionization simulations performed with ATON-HE, a revised version of the GPU-based radiative transfer code ATON that includes helium. The simulations are able to reproduce the Ly α flux distribution of the E-XQR-30 sample of QSO absorption spectra at 5 z 6.2, and show that a large variety of reionization models are consistent with these data. We explore a range of variations in source models and in the early-stage evolution of reionization. Our fiducial reionization history has a mid-point of reionization at z = 6.5, but we also explore an ‘Early’ reionization history with a mid-point at z = 7.5 and an ‘Extremely Early’ reionization history with a mid-point at z = 9.5. Haloes massive enough to host observed Ly α emitters are highly biased. The fraction of such haloes embedded in ionized bubbles that are large enough to allow high Ly α transmission becomes close to unity much before the volume filling factor of ionized regions. For our fiducial reionization history this happens at z = 8, probably too late to be consistent with the detection by JWST of abundant Ly α emission out to z = 11. A reionization history in our ‘Early’ model or perhaps even our ‘Extremely Early’ model may be required, suggesting a Thomson scattering optical depth in tension with that reported by Planck, but consistent with recent suggestions of a significantly higher value.

Citation

Shikhar, A., Martin G., H., Girish, K., Dominique, A., James S., B., & Laura C., K. (2024). Late-end reionization with aton-he: towards constraints from Ly α emitters observed with JWST. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 533(3), 2843-2866. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae1945

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 9, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Aug 15, 2024
• Publication Date: 2024-09
• Deposit Date: Aug 28, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 2, 2024
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Print ISSN: 0035-8711
• Electronic ISSN: 1365-2966
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 533
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 2843-2866
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stae1945
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/33838714
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/533/3/2843/7733916?login=false