Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2006-04-10
Astrophys.J.649:570-578,2006
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
submitted to ApJ, 9 emulateapj pages with 7 figures
Scientific paper
10.1086/506906
The reionization history of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at high redshift (z > 6) was likely strongly shaped by several global feedback processes. Because the earliest ionizing sources formed at the locations of the rare density peaks, their spatial distribution was strongly clustered. Here we demonstrate that this clustering significantly boosts the impact of feedback processes operating at high redshift. We build a semi-analytical model to include feedback and clustering simultaneously, and apply this model to the suppression of star-formation in minihalos due to photoionization. The model is built on the excursion-set-based formalism of Furlanetto, Zaldarriaga and Hernquist (2004), which incorporates the clustering of ionizing sources, and which we here extend to include suppression of star formation in minihalos. We find that clustering increases the mean HII bubble size by a factor of several, and it dramatically increases the fraction of minihalos that are suppressed, by a factor of up to 60 relative to a randomly distributed population. This enhanced suppression can significantly reduce the electron scattering optical depth, as required by the three-year data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP). We argue that source clustering is likely to similarly boost the importance of a variety of other feedback mechanisms.
Haiman Zoltan
Kramer Roban Hultman
Oh Siang Peng
No associations
LandOfFree
Feedback from Clustered Sources During Reionization does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Feedback from Clustered Sources During Reionization, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Feedback from Clustered Sources During Reionization will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-286044