Cosmological Reionization by Stellar Sources

Abstract

I use cosmological simulations that incorporate a physically motivated approximation to three- dimensional radiative transfer that recovers correct asymptotic ionization front propagation speeds for some cosmologically relevant density distributions to investigate the process of the reionization of the universe by ionizing radiation from protogalaxies. Reionization proceeds in three stages and occupies a large redshift range from z D 15 until z D 5. During the —rst, ii preoverlap ˇˇ stage, H II regions gradually expand into the low-density intergalactic medium, leaving behind neutral high-density protrusions. During the second, ii overlap ˇˇ stage, that occurs in about 10% of the Hubble time, H II regions merge and the ionizing background rises by a large factor. During the third, ii postoverlap ˇˇ stage, remaining high-density regions are being gradually ionized as the required ionizing photons are being produced. Residual —uctuations in the ionizing background reach signi—cant (more than 10%) levels for the Lya forest absorption systems with column densities above 1014¨1015 cm~2 at z 3¨4. Subject headings: cosmology: theorygalaxies: formationintergalactic medium ¨ large-scale structure of universe