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Reionization with Simba: How Much Does Astrophysics Matter in Modeling Cosmic Reionization?
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.
Authors:
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Award ID(s):
Publication Date:
NSF-PAR ID:
10331099
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal
Volume:
931
Issue:
1
Page Range or eLocation-ID:
62
ISSN:
0004-637X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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