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1. Detecting Cosmic Reionization Using the Bispectrum Phase

   https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.251301  

   Thyagarajan, Nithyanandan ; Carilli, Chris L. ; Nikolic, Bojan ( June 2018 , Physical Review Letters)
2. Reionization with Simba: How Much Does Astrophysics Matter in Modeling Cosmic Reionization?

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac69e2  

   Hassan, Sultan ; Davé, Romeel ; McQuinn, Matthew ; Somerville, Rachel S. ; Keating, Laura C. ; Anglés-Alcázar, Daniel ; Villaescusa-Navarro, Francisco ; Spergel, David N. ( May 2022 , The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract Traditional large-scale models of reionization usually employ simple deterministic relations between halo mass and luminosity to predict how reionization proceeds. We here examine the impact on modeling reionization of using more detailed models for the ionizing sources as identified within the 100 h −1 Mpc cosmological hydrodynamic simulation S imba , coupled with postprocessed radiative transfer. Comparing with simple (one-to-one) models, the main difference with using S imba sources is the scatter in the relation between dark matter halos and star formation, and hence ionizing emissivity. We find that, at the power spectrum level, the ionization morphology remains mostly unchanged, regardless of the variability in the number of sources or escape fraction. In particular, the power spectrum shape remains unaffected and its amplitude changes slightly by less than 5%–10%, throughout reionization, depending on the scale and neutral fraction. Our results show that simplified models of ionizing sources remain viable to efficiently model the structure of reionization on cosmological scales, although the precise progress of reionization requires accounting for the scatter induced by astrophysical effects.
3. Constraining reionization in progress at z  = 5.7 with Lyman-α emitters: voids, peaks, and cosmic variance

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa3843  

   Gangolli, Nakul ; D’Aloisio, Anson ; Nasir, Fahad ; Zheng, Zheng ( January 2021 , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   ABSTRACT A number of independent observations suggest that the intergalactic medium was significantly neutral at z = 7 and that reionization was, perhaps, still in progress at z = 5.7. The narrowband survey, SILVERRUSH, has mapped over 2000 Lyman-α emitters (LAEs) at these redshifts ( G58). Previous analyses have assumed that reionization was over by z = 5.7, but this data may actually sample the final stages of reionization when the last neutral islands were relegated to the cosmic voids. Motivated by these developments, we re-examine LAE void and peak statistics and their ability to constrain reionization. We construct models of the LAE distribution in (1 Gpc h−1)3 volumes, spanning a range of neutral fractions at z = 5.7 and 6.6. Models with a higher neutral fraction show an enhanced probability of finding holes in the LAE distribution. When comparing models at fixed mean surface density, however, LAEs obscured by neutral gas in the voids must be compensated by visible LAEs elsewhere. Hence, in these models, the likelihood of finding an overdense peak is also enhanced in the latter half of reionization. Compared to the widely used angular two-point correlation function (2PCF), we find that the void probability function (VPF) provides a more sensitive testmore »of models during the latter half of reionization. By comparison, at neutral fractions $\sim 50{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$, the VPF and a simple peak thresholding statistic are both similar to the 2PCF in constraining power. Lastly, we find that the cosmic variance and large-scale asymmetries observed in the SILVERRUSH fields are consistent with large-scale structure in a ΛCDM universe.« less
4. B-modes from Post-inflationary Gravitational Waves Sourced by Axionic Instabilities at Cosmic Reionization

   Geller, Michael ; Lu, Sida ; Tsai, Yuhsin ( April 2021 , ArXivorg)
5. The impact of inhomogeneous subgrid clumping on cosmic reionization

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz2986  

   Mao, Yi ; Koda, Jun ; Shapiro, Paul R. ; Iliev, Ilian T. ; Mellema, Garrelt ; Park, Hyunbae ; Ahn, Kyungjin ; Bianco, Michele ( October 2019 , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   Cosmic reionization was driven by the imbalance between early sources and sinks of ionizing radiation, both of which were dominated by small-scale structure and are thus usually treated in cosmological reionization simulations by subgrid modelling. The recombination rate of intergalactic hydrogen is customarily boosted by a subgrid clumping factor, 〈n2〉/〈n〉2, which corrects for unresolved fluctuations in gas density n on scales below the grid-spacing of coarse-grained simulations. We investigate in detail the impact of this inhomogeneous subgrid clumping on reionization and its observables, as follows: (1) Previous attempts generally underestimated the clumping factor because of insufficient mass resolution. We perform a high-resolution N-body simulation that resolves haloes down to the pre-reionization Jeans mass to derive the time-dependent, spatially varying local clumping factor and a fitting formula for its correlation with local overdensity. (2) We then perform a large-scale N-body and radiative transfer simulation that accounts for this inhomogeneous subgrid clumping by applying this clumping factor-overdensity correlation. Boosting recombination significantly slows the expansion of ionized regions, which delays completion of reionization and suppresses 21 cm power spectra on large scales in the later stages of reionization. (3) We also consider a simplified prescription in which the globally averaged, time-evolving clumping factormore »from the same high-resolution N-body simulation is applied uniformly to all cells in the reionization simulation, instead. Observables computed with this model agree fairly well with those from the inhomogeneous clumping model, e.g. predicting 21 cm power spectra to within 20 per cent error, suggesting it may be a useful approximation.

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