Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 485, Issue 1, Pages L24-L28Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/mnrasl/slz025
Keywords
radiative transfer; galaxies: high-redshift; intergalactic medium; quasars: absorption lines; dark ages, reionization, first stars
Categories
Funding
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [EP/P020259/1]
- Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
- BIS National E-infrastructure capital grant [ST/K00042X/1]
- DiRAC Operations grant [ST/K003267/1]
- Durham University
- European Research Council (ERC) [320596]
- EPSRC [EP/P020259/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- STFC [ST/T001348/1, ST/T001569/1, ST/R001014/1, ST/M006948/1, ST/M007073/1, ST/R001006/1, ST/M007006/1, ST/M007065/1, ST/S002529/1, ST/T001372/1, ST/R00689X/1, ST/S000623/1, ST/R000832/1, ST/M007618/1, ST/R001049/1, ST/T001550/1] Funding Source: UKRI
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High-redshift quasi-stellar object (QSO) spectra show large spatial fluctuations in the Ly alpha opacity of the intergalactic medium on surprisingly large scales at z greater than or similar to 5.5. We present a radiative transfer simulation of cosmic reionization driven by galaxies that reproduces this large scatter and the rapid evolution of the Ly alpha opacity distribution at 5 < z < 6. The simulation also reproduces the low Thomson scattering optical depth reported by the latest cosmic microwave background (CMB) measurement and is consistent with the observed short near-zones and strong red damping wings in the highest redshift QSOs. It also matches the rapid disappearance of observed Ly alpha emission by galaxies at z greater than or similar to 6. Reionization is complete at z = 5.3 in our model, and 50 per cent of the volume of the Universe is ionized at z = 7. Agreement with the Ly alpha forest data in such a late reionization model requires a rapid evolution of the ionizing emissivity of galaxies that peaks at z similar to 6.8. The late end of reionization results in a large scatter in the photoionization rate and the neutral hydrogen fraction at redshifts as low as z less than or similar to 5.5 with large residual neutral 'islands' that can produce very long Gunn-Peterson troughs resembling those seen in the data.
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