First look at the topology of reionisation redshifts in models of the epoch of reionisation

Emilie Thélie,Pierre Ocvirk,Dominique Aubert,Nicolas Gillet

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202141748

Abstract

Context. During the epoch of reionisation (EoR), the first stars and galaxies appeared while creating ionised bubbles that eventually percolated near z ∼ 6. These ionised bubbles and percolation process are closely scrutinised today because observations of neutral hydrogen will be carried on in the next decade with the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope, for instance. In the meantime, EoR studies are performed in semi-analytical and fully numerical cosmological simulations to investigate the topology of the process, for instance. Aims. We analyse the topology of EoR models by studying regions that are under the radiative influence of ionisation sources. These regions are associated with peak patches of the reionisation redshift field, for which we measure the general properties such as their number, size, shape, and orientation. We aim to gain insights into the geometry of the reionisation process and its relation to the matter distribution, for example. We also assess how these measurements can be used to quantify the effect of physical parameters on the EoR models or the differences between fully numerical simulations and semi-analytical models. Methods. We used the framework of Morse theory and persistent homology in the context of the EoR, which was investigated via the DisPerSE algorithm on gas density and redshift of reionisation maps. We analysed different EoR scenarios with semi-analytical 21cmFAST and fully numerical EMMA simulations. Results. We can distinguish between EoR models with different sources using simple analyses of the number, shape, and size distributions of the reionisation redshift patches. For every model (of the semi-analytical and fully numerical simulations), we statistically show that these bubbles are rather prolate and aligned with the underlying gas filaments. Moreover, we briefly highlight that the percolation process of HII bubbles during the EoR can be followed by studying the reionisation redshift fields with different persistence thresholds. Finally, we show that fully numerical EMMA simulations can be made consistent with 21cmFAST models in this topological framework as long as the source distribution is diffuse enough.

Highlights

The epoch of reionisation (EoR) marks the transition of a totally neutral to a fully ionised Universe, whose large-scale structures are composed of filaments, voids, and very dense regions
During the EoR, the first sources of radiation appear and release the photons that are required to ionise the cosmic gas. Light escaping from these first stars and galaxies created HII regions that eventually percolated at the end of EoR between z = 5.3−6 (Kulkarni et al 2019)
Other studies focused on the size distributions of neutral or ionised regions, which characterise the size of neutral islands or HII bubbles and their percolation during the EoR

Summary

Introduction

The epoch of reionisation (EoR) marks the transition of a totally neutral to a fully ionised Universe, whose large-scale structures are composed of filaments, voids, and very dense regions. During the EoR, the first sources of radiation appear and release the photons that are required to ionise the cosmic gas Light escaping from these first stars and galaxies created HII regions ( known as HII bubbles) that eventually percolated at the end of EoR between z = 5.3−6 (Kulkarni et al 2019). This epoch is closely studied today to try to understand, for instance, which types of sources drove the EoR, or how and when the HII bubbles overlapped. It relies on a three-point correlation function based on the inverse Fourier transform of the bispectrum that describes the phase of the signal of interest

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