ON LYMAN-LIMIT SYSTEMS AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE INTERGALACTIC IONIZING BACKGROUND

By M. McQuinn, S. Peng Oh, C. Faucher-Giguére. 2011

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We study the properties of self-shielding intergalactic absorption systems and their implications for the ionizing background. We find that cosmological simulations post-processed with detailed radiative transfer calculations generally are able to reproduce the observed abundance of Lyman-limit systems, and we highlight possible discrepancies between the observations and simulations. This comparison tests cosmological simulations at overdensities of ∼100. Furthermore, we show that the properties of Lyman-limit systems in these simulations, in simple semianalytic arguments, and as suggested by recent observations indicate that a small change in the ionizing emissivity of the sources would have resulted in a much larger change in the amplitude of the intergalactic H i-ionizing background (with this scaling strengthening with increasing redshift). This strong scaling could explain the rapid evolution in the Lyα forest transmission observed at z ≈ 6. Our calculations agree with the suggestion of simpler models that the comoving ionizing emissivity was constant or even increasing from z = 3 to 6. Our calculations also provide a more rigorous estimate than in previous studies for the clumping factor of intergalactic gas after reionization, which we estimate was ≈2–3 at z = 6.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/6f901ef4cc1e1adbc38daff8c417d7633227cc45

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Citations in the corpus

The Giant Gemini GMOS survey of zem > 4.4 quasars – I. Measuring the mean free path across cosmic time (2014, methodology): “…filaments, the cosmic web), consistent with current numerical results exploring the frequency distribution of H I gas (Altay et al. 2011; Fumagalli et al. 2011; McQuinn et al. 2011; Rahmati et al. 2013) and recent analysis of the cross-correlation between LLSs and quasars (Prochaska et al. 2013b).”
How neutral is the intergalactic medium surrounding the redshift z = 7.085 quasar ULAS J1120+0641? (2011, methodology): “The rapid change in the photoionisation rate by two orders of magnitude or more in our models is balanced by a similar change in the number of LLSs and thus the mean free path of ionising photons (e.g. McQuinn et al. 2011).”
The EAGLE project: Simulating the evolution and assembly of galaxies and their environments (2014, methodology): “More recently, simulations that have been reprocessed using radiative transfer of ionizing radiation have succeeded in matching key properties of the high-column density H i absorbers (e.g. Pontzen et al. 2008; Altay et al. 2011; McQuinn et al. 2011; Rahmati et al. 2013a).”
The ESO UVES advanced data products quasar sample: II. Cosmological evolution of the neutral gas mass density (2013, background): “It is due to less self-shielding in the absorbers because at these column densities, part of the neutral gas of the absorber is ionized by incidentUV flux (e.g., Katz et al. 1996; Pontzen et al. 2008; McQuinn et al. 2011; Altay et al. 2011).”
THE EVOLUTION OF THE GALAXY REST-FRAME ULTRAVIOLET LUMINOSITY FUNCTION OVER THE FIRST TWO BILLION YEARS (2014, background): “The clumping factor is primarily constrained theoretically, but most studies agree that it is low (<6) at high redshift (e.g., Faucher-Giguère et al. 2008; Pawlik et al. 2009; McQuinn et al. 2011; Finlator et al. 2012).”
On the evolution of the H i column density distribution in cosmological simulations (2012, background): “…that the UVB photoionization is the dominant source of ionization, which is a good assumption at high redshifts and explains the relation between density and column density in Lyα forest simulations (e.g., Davé et al. 2010; Altay et al. 2011; McQuinn et al. 2011; Tepper-Garćıa et al. 2012).”
21CMMC: an MCMC analysis tool enabling astrophysical parameter studies of the cosmic 21 cm signal (2015, background): “Physically, this maximum horizon is taken to correspond to the mean free path of ionizing photons within ionized regions, Rmfp (e.g. O’Meara et al. 2007; Prochaska & Wolfe 2009; Songaila & Cowie 2010; McQuinn et al. 2011).”
Inferring the astrophysics of reionization and cosmic dawn from galaxy luminosity functions and the 21-cm signal (2018, methodology): “To convert the emissivity to number of photons per baryon per Gyr, we assume the specific emissivity provided by D’Aloisio et al. (2018b) follows a power-law, Lν ∝ ναν , and adopt α = −1.5, consistent with Lusso et al. (2015) (see also e.g. McQuinn et al. 2011; D’Aloisio et al. 2018a).”
Can the intergalactic medium cause a rapid drop in Lyα emission at z > 6? (2014, methodology): “The total transmission, TIGM, is then an integral over the intrinsic line: TIGM = ∫ dνJ(ν) exp[−τreion(ν)− τHII(ν)] , (6) where J(ν) is normalized to integrate to unity.”
CANDELS: THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE OBSERVED GALAXY POPULATION TO COSMIC REIONIZATION (2012, background): “…of an improved understanding of the feedback from reionization (e.g., Miralda-Escudé et al. 2000; Pawlik et al. 2009; Shull et al. 2011) (see also Wise & Abel 2005; Iliev et al. 2006; Raǐcevíc & Theuns 2011) and improvements in our understanding of self-shielding (e.g., McQuinn et al. 2011).”
Signatures of X-rays in the early Universe (2012, background): “Nγ = 4400 is expected for PopII stars (e.g. Barkana & Loeb 2005), and studies of the high-redshift Lyman alpha forest suggest n̄rec ∼ 0 (MiraldaEscudé 2003; Bolton & Haehnelt 2007; McQuinn et al. 2011).”
The Evolution of the Intergalactic Medium (2015, background): “These include spatial variations in T (∆b), spatial variations in the ionizing background, and galactic feedback processes (Meiksin & White 2004; Croft 2004; Lai et al. 2006; McDonald et al. 2005b; McQuinn et al. 2011).”
INTENSITY MAPPING WITH CARBON MONOXIDE EMISSION LINES AND THE REDSHIFTED 21 cm LINE (2011, background): “These suggest that the total emissivity of ionizing photons at z = 5 − 6 is comparable to the critical value required to keep the Universe ionized (Miralda-Escudè 2003, Bolton & Haehnelt 2005, Faucher-Giguère et al. 2008, McQuinn et al. 2011).”
New Measurements of the Ionizing Ultraviolet Background over 2 < z < 5 and Implications for Hydrogen Reionization (2013, methodology): “…flat or increase with redshift over 3 < z < 5, the decrease in Γ may instead signify a rapid evolution in the mean free path, consistent with the photoionization of Lyman limit systems at the end of the ‘post-overlap’ phase of reionization (e.g., Furlanetto & Oh 2005, but see McQuinn et al. 2011).”
Inhomogeneous recombinations during cosmic reionization (2014, background): “These measurements become increasingly uncertain at z ∼> 4 (e.g. Bolton & Haehnelt 2007; McQuinn et al. 2011; Kuhlen & FaucherGiguère 2012).”
NEW CONSTRAINTS ON COSMIC REIONIZATION FROM THE 2012 HUBBLE ULTRA DEEP FIELD CAMPAIGN (2013, background): “Nonetheless, the Bolton & Haehnelt (2007b) analysis shows that the ionizing background falls by about a factor of ten fromz ∼ 3 to toz ∼ 6 (though see McQuinn et al. 2011).”
Concordance models of reionization: implications for faint galaxies and escape fraction evolution (2012, background): “This basic behavior stems from the fact that while the photoionization rate, ΓHI, is approximately constant over this redshift interval, the mean free path decreases rapidly with increasing redshift (Faucher-Giguère et al. 2008a; McQuinn et al. 2011).”
THE z = 5 QUASAR LUMINOSITY FUNCTION FROM SDSS STRIPE 82 (2012, background): “More recent work suggests that the clumping factor is not so large; Meiksin (2005) argues that C ≈ 5 and McQuinn et al. (2011) use cosmological simulations that include the effects of Lyman-limit systems and find C ≈ 2–3 at z = 6.”
THE FINAL SDSS HIGH-REDSHIFT QUASAR SAMPLE OF 52 QUASARS AT z > 5.7 (2016, background): “Simulations have suggested ~C 2 5– (e.g., McQuinn et al. 2011; Finlator et al. 2012; Shull et al. 2012).”