New Measurements of the Ionizing Ultraviolet Background over 2 < z < 5 and Implications for Hydrogen Reionization

By George D. Becker, J. Bolton. 2013

243 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present new measurements of the intensity of the ionizing ultraviolet background and the global emissivity of ionizing photons over 2 4, and possibly at all redshifts z > 2.4. Our results suggest that the globally-averaged ionizing "efficiency" of star-forming galaxies increases substantially with redshift over 3.2 5.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6bfeb83300300ee7aa190459db19043dc2037925

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. L. Hernquist
2. P. Hopkins
3. R. Dav'e
4. M. McQuinn
5. Richard S. Ellis
6. R. Somerville
7. C. Conroy
8. P. Oesch

In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

1. M. McQuinn
2. S. Furlanetto
3. M. Haehnelt
4. A. Meiksin
5. C. Carilli
6. George D. Becker
7. L. Hernquist
8. M. Pettini

Citations in the corpus

• Feedback-regulated star formation and escape of LyC photons from mini-haloes during reionization (2016, result): “In the cases with the fiducial escape fraction, the number of LyC photons that escape from their host halo peaks at z ∼ 5 and decreases at lower redshift, in remarkably good agreement with the observational findings at 3 ≤ z ≤ 4.7 (Becker & Bolton 2013).”
• New constraints on lyman-α opacity with a sample of 62 quasars at z > 5.7 (2018, result): “Bolton et al. (2017) compare simulated Lyman-α lines of sight with the results from Becker & Bolton (2013) and Becker et al. (2015b), finding remarkable agreement over 2.5 < z < 5 with a slight lack of strongly opaque regions at z = 2.0.”
• ALMA SPECTROSCOPIC SURVEY IN THE HUBBLE ULTRA DEEP FIELD: THE INFRARED EXCESS OF UV-SELECTED z = 2–10 GALAXIES AS A FUNCTION OF UV-CONTINUUM SLOPE AND STELLAR MASS (2016, background): “If we assume that the escape fraction from galaxies is sufficient to reproduce observed constraints on the ionizing emissivity of the universe at z ∼ 4.4 (Becker & Bolton 2013), this would translate into a 0.02-dex higher mean ξion.”
• The first ultraviolet quasar-stacked spectrum at z ≃ 2.4 from WFC3 (2015, background): “…of the UV background is Jν (ν, z) 1 4π λmfp (ν, z) (1 + z)3 ν (ν, z) (7) (Madau, Haardt & Rees 1999; Schirber & Bullock 2003; FaucherGiguère et al. 2008; Becker & Bolton 2013), with λmfp ( ν) given 13 Note that Haardt & Madau (2012) simplistically assume ν, 912(z) and Lν (ν) to be…”
• The Evolution of the Intergalactic Medium (2015, methodology): “…held up in some subsequent studies (Faucher-Giguère et al. 2008b; Kuhlen & Faucher-Giguère 2012; Becker & Bolton 2013).15 Recently this photon-starved result has been revisited by Becker & Bolton (2013), using higher redshift λmfp estimates and more rigorously tracking the sources of uncertainty.”
• The birth of a galaxy – III. Propelling reionization with the faintest galaxies (2014, background): “Eventually these galaxies are photosuppressed, and the total ionizing emissivity converges to model (i) at z ∼ 6 that are consistent with observational constraints (Kuhlen & Faucher-Giguère 2012; Becker & Bolton 2013).”
• Rapid Reionization by the Oligarchs: The Case for Massive, UV-bright, Star-forming Galaxies with High Escape Fractions (2019, unknown): “A related issue is whether our models overrun the constraints on ionizing emissivity at lower-z plotted in the top-left panel of our Figure 7 when combined with the AGN emissivity at lower redshifts (Kuhlen & Faucher-Giguère 2012; Becker & Bolton 2013).”
• REIONIZATION AFTER PLANCK: THE DERIVED GROWTH OF THE COSMIC IONIZING EMISSIVITY NOW MATCHES THE GROWTH OF THE GALAXY UV LUMINOSITY DENSITY (2015, background): “…on inferring the cosmic ionizing emissivity Nion˙ and its evolution over the reionization epoch from a variety of observables (building of course on significant earlier work by e.g., Madau et al. 1999; Bolton & Haehnelt 2007; KF12; R13; Becker & Bolton 2013; R15: see also Mitra et al. 2011, 2012).”
• The Giant Gemini GMOS survey of zem > 4.4 quasars – I. Measuring the mean free path across cosmic time (2014, methodology): “In turn, these results inform model predictions for evolution in the extragalactic UV background (Faucher-Giguère et al. 2009; Haardt & Madau 2012; Becker & Bolton 2013).”
• Evidence of patchy hydrogen reionization from an extreme Lyα trough below redshift six (2014, background): “Note that we neglect the redshifting of ionizing photons, though this should have a relatively minor impact at z > 4 (e.g., Becker & Bolton 2013).”
• A characteristic scale for cold gas (2016, background): “Whether this gas is accreted cold from the intergalactic medium (e. g. Kereš et al., 2005), forms in-situ via thermal instability (e. g. Maller & Bullock, 2004; McCourt et al., 2012; Sharma et al., 2012; Voit et al., 2015a), or is launched from the galaxy disk in outflows (e. g. Faucher-Giguere et a”
• Stellar population effects on the inferred photon density at reionization (2015, methodology): “…arising from the observed 1500Å luminosity functions of Lyman break c© 2015 RAS, MNRAS 000, 1–17 galaxies as a function of redshift (Reddy & Steidel 2009; Bouwens et al. 2015), to the ionizing photon flux inferred by Becker & Bolton (2013) based on measurements of the Lyman-α forest at z ∼ 2− 5.”
• The Keck Lyman Continuum Spectroscopic Survey (KLCS): The Emergent Ionizing Spectrum of Galaxies at z ∼ 3 (2018, methodology): “…mean free path of ionizing photons, both of which affect the conversion between a measurement of LyC and the corresponding photoionization rate Γ; see Becker & Bolton (2013) for detailed discussion. the CGM of galaxies from the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey (KBSS; Rudie et al. 2013) to produce…”
• Evolution of the AGN UV luminosity function from redshift 7.5 (2018, background): “…& Srianand 2015) and AGN+galaxies (Haardt & Madau 2012; Puchwein et al. 2018), as well as inferences from the H i Lyα forest (Wyithe & Bolton 2011; Becker & Bolton 2013; Gaikwad et al. 2017b; D’Aloisio et al. 2018), the Lyα+β forest (Davies et al. 2018), and the quasar proximity effect…”
• COSMIC REIONIZATION AND EARLY STAR-FORMING GALAXIES: A JOINT ANALYSIS OF NEW CONSTRAINTS FROM PLANCK AND THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE (2015, methodology): “In Robertson et al. (2013) we examined these assumptions carefully and tested more complex models, e.g. with evolving escape fraction required to match the IGM photoionization rates at z < 6 (e.g., Becker & Bolton 2013).”