Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 499, Issue 2, Pages 1640-1651Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staa2918
Keywords
methods: numerical; intergalactic medium; dark ages, reionization, first stars
Categories
Funding
- National Key R&D Program of China [2017YFB0203302, 2018YFA0404502]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [11761141012, 11673014, 11821303]
- Tsinghua Shui Mu Scholarship
- Chinese National Thousand Youth Talents Program
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Conventional wisdom was that thermal relics from the epoch of reionization (EOR) would vanish swiftly. Recently, however, it was shown that these relics can survive to lower redshifts (z similar to 2) than previously thought, due to gas at mean density being heated to T similar to 3 x 10(4) K by reionization, which is inhomogeneous, and shocks. Given the high sensitivities of upcoming Ly alpha forest surveys, this effect will be a novel broad-band systematic for cosmological application. From the astrophysical point of view, however, the imprint of inhomogeneous reionization can shed light on the EOR and cosmic dawn. We utilize a hybrid method - which includes two different simulation codes capable of handling the huge dynamical range - to show the impact of patchy reionization on the Ly alpha forest and its dependence on different astrophysical scenarios. We found statistically significant deviations in the 1D Ly alpha power spectrum at k = 0.14 cMpc(-1) that range from similar to 1 per cent at z = 2 up to almost similar to 20 per cent at z = 4. The deviations in the 3D Ly alpha power spectrum, at the same wavenumber, are large and range from a few per cent at z = 2 up to similar to 50 per cent at z = 4, although these deviations ignore the effect of He II reionization and active galactic nucleus feedback at z < 4. By exploiting different k-dependence of power spectrum among various astrophysical scenarios, the effect of patchy reionization on the Ly alpha forest power spectrum can open a new window into cosmic reionization and possibly cosmic dawn.
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