Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 793, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/793/1/30
Keywords
cosmology: theory; galaxies: formation; intergalactic medium; large-scale structure of universe; methods: numerical
Categories
Funding
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences [1211190] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Physics [1125897] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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We compare the results from several sets of cosmological simulations of cosmic reionization, produced under the Cosmic Reionization On Computers project, with existing observational data on the high-redshift Ly alpha forest and the abundance of Ly alpha emitters. We find good consistency with the observational measurements and previous simulation work. By virtue of having several independent realizations for each set of numerical parameters, we are able to explore the effect of cosmic variance on observable quantities. One unexpected conclusion we are forced into is that cosmic variance is unusually large at z > 6, with both our simulations and, most likely, observational measurements still not fully converged for even such basic quantities as the average Gunn-Peterson optical depth or the volume-weighted neutral fraction. We also find that reionization has little effect on the early galaxies or on global cosmic star formation history, because galaxies whose gas content is affected by photoionization contain no molecular (i.e., star-forming) gas in the first place. In particular, measurements of the faint end of the galaxy luminosity function by the James Webb Space Telescope are unlikely to provide a useful constraint on reionization.
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