arXiv subjects

Paul R. Shapiro

Publications and source records attributed to Paul R. Shapiro.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

Effect of the intergalactic environment on the observability of Ly-alpha emitters during reionization

Observations of high-redshift Ly-alpha sources are a major tool for studying the high-redshift Universe. We discuss the effect of the reionizing intergalactic medium on the observability of Ly-alpha sources based on large simulations of early structure formation with radiative transfer. This takes into account self-consistently the reionization history, density, velocity and ionization structures and nonlinear source clustering. We find that all fields are highly anisotropic and as a consequence there are very large variations in opacity among the different lines-of-sight. The velocity effects, from both infall and source peculiar velocity are most important for the luminous sources, affecting the line profile and depressing the bright end of the luminosity function. The line profiles are generally asymmetric and the line centers of the luminous sources are always absorbed due to the high density of the local IGM. For both luminous and average sources the damping wing effects are of similar magnitude and remain significant until fairly late. The ionizing flux in the ionized patch surrounding a high density peak is generally strongly dominated, particularly at late times, by the cluster of faint sources, rather than the central massive galaxy. The IGM absorption does not change appreciably the correlation function of sources at high redshift. Our derived luminosity function assuming constant mass-to-light ratio provides an excellent match to the shape of the observed luminosity function at z=6.6 with faint-end slope of alpha=-1.5. The resulting mass-to-light ratio implies that the majority of sources responsible for reionization are too faint to be observed by the current surveys. (abridged)

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arXiv2008

The Inhomogeneous Background of H2 Dissociating Radiation During Cosmic Reionization

The first, self-consistent calculations of the cosmological H_2 dissociating UV background produced during the epoch of reionization (EOR) by the sources of reionization are presented. Large-scale radiative transfer simulations of reionization trace the impact of all the ionizing starlight on the IGM from all the sources in our simulation volume down to dwarf galaxies of mass ~ 10^8 solar mass, identified by very high-resolution N-body simulations, including the self-regulating effect of IGM photoheating on dwarf galaxy formation. The UV continuum emitted below 13.6 eV by each source is then transferred through the same IGM, attenuated by atomic H Lyman series resonance lines, to predict the evolution of the inhomogeneous background in the Lyman-Werner band of H_2 between 11 and 13.6 eV.

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arXiv2008

The Theory and Simulation of the 21-cm Background from the Epoch of Reionization

The redshifted 21-cm line of distant neutral H atoms provides a probe of the cosmic ``dark ages'' and the epoch of reionization (``EOR'') which ended them. The radio continuum produced by this redshifted line can be seen in absorption or emission against the CMB at meterwaves, yielding information about the thermal and ionization history of the universe and the primordial density perturbation spectrum that led to galaxy and large-scale structure formation. Observing this 21-cm background is a great challenge. A new generation of low-frequency radio arrays is currently under development to search for this background. Accurate theoretical predictions of the spectrum and anisotropy of this background, necessary to guide and interpret future observations, are also quite challenging. It is necessary to model the inhomogeneous reionization of the intergalactic medium and determine the spin temperature of the 21-cm transition and its variations in time and space as it decouples from the temperature of the CMB. Here, we focus on just a few of the predictions for the 21-cm background from the EOR, based on our newest, large-scale simulations of patchy reionization. These simulations are the first with enough N-body particles (from 5 to 29 billion) and radiative transfer rays to resolve the formation of and trace the ionizing radiation from each of the millions of dwarf galaxies believed responsible for reionization, down to 10^8 M_solar, in a cubic volume large enough (90 and 163 comoving Mpc on a side) to make meaningful statistical predictions of the fluctuating 21-cm background. (abridged)

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arXiv2008

Simulating Cosmic Reionization

The Cosmic Dark Ages and the Epoch of Reionization constitute a crucial missing link in our understanding of the evolution of the intergalactic medium and the formation and evolution of galaxies. Due to the complex nature of this global process it is best studied through large-scale numerical simulations. This presents considerable computational challenges. The dominant contributors of ionizing radiation were dwarf galaxies. These tiny galaxies must be resolved in very large cosmological volumes in order to derive their clustering properties and the corresponding observational signatures correctly, which makes this one of the most challenging problems of numerical cosmology. We have recently performed the largest and most detailed simulations of the formation of early cosmological large-scale structures and their radiative feedback leading to cosmic reionization. This was achieved by running extremely large (up to 29 billion-particle) N-body simulations of the formation of the Cosmic Web, with enough particles and sufficient force resolution to resolve all the galactic halos with total masses larger than 10^8 Solar masses in computational volumes of up to (163 Mpc)^3. These results were then post-processed by propagating the ionizing radiation from all sources by using fast and accurate ray-tracing radiative transfer method. Both of our codes are parallelized using a combination of MPI and OpenMP and to this date have been run efficiently on up to 2048 cores (N-body) and up to 10000 cores (radiative transfer) on the newly-deployed Sun Constellation Linux Cluster at the Texas Advanced Computing Center. In this paper we describe our codes, parallelization strategies, scaling and some preliminary scientific results. (abridged)

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arXiv2008

The Cluster-Merger Shock in 1E 0657-56

The merging galaxy cluster 1E 0657-56, known as the "bullet cluster," is one of the hottest clusters known. The X-ray emitting plasma exhibits bow-shock-like temperature and density jumps. The segregation of this plasma from the peaks of the mass distribution determined by gravitational lensing has been interpreted as a direct proof of collisionless dark matter. If the high shock speed inferred from the shock jump conditions equals the relative speed of the merging CDM halos, however, this merger is predicted to be such a rare event in a LCDM universe that observing it presents a possible conflict with the LCDM model. We examined this question using high resolution, 2D simulations of gas dynamics in cluster collisions to analyze the relative motion of the clusters, the bow shock, and the contact discontinuity, and relate these to the X-ray data for the bullet cluster. We find that the velocity of the fluid shock need not equal the relative velocity of the CDM components. An illustrative simulation finds that the present relative velocity of the CDM halos is 16% lower than that of the shock. While this conclusion is sensitive to the detailed initial mass and gas density profiles of the colliding clusters, such a decrease of the inferred halo relative velocity would significantly increase the likelihood of finding 1E 0657-56 in a LCDM universe. (Conference proceedings based on a poster at Bash Symposium 2007)

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arXiv2007

Character and detectability of the dark ages and the epoch of reionization: the view from the simulations

Direct detection of the Dark Ages and the Epoch of Reionization (EOR) is among the main scientific objectives of all current and future low-frequency radio facilities. In this paper we summarize and discuss recent results, based on state-of-the-art numerical simulations, regarding the fundamental EOR properties and its observability with current and future radio arrays, like the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), the 21-CM Array (21CMA), the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Results show that the optimal observational frequencies for statistical detection are 140-160 MHz. The signals are strongly non-Gaussian at late times. The correlation widths between 21-cm maps at neighbouring frequencies are short, of order 300-800 kHz, which should help with the cleaning of the strong foregrounds. Direct comparison of the resolutions and expected sensitivities of GMRT and MWA indicate that their optimal sensitivity ranges are similar, at scales k~0.2-0.4 h/Mpc, however, all else being equal the former should require shorter integration times due to its significantly larger collecting area.

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arXiv2007

On The Survival and Abundance of Disk-dominated Galaxies

We study the formation of disk-dominated galaxies in a Lambda CDM universe. Their existence is considered to be a challenge for the Lambda CDM cosmology, because galaxy mergers isotropize stellar disks and trigger angular momentum transport in gas disks, thus fostering the formation of central stellar spheroids. Here, we postulate that the formation of stellar spheroids from gas-rich disks is controlled by two parameters that characterize galaxy mergers, the mass ratio of merging dark matter halos, and the virial velocity of the larger merging halo. We utilize merger histories generated from realizations of the cosmological density field to calculate the fraction of dark matter halos that have avoided spheroid formation, and compare the derived statistics with the spheroid occupation fractions in surveys of nearby galaxies. We find, for example, that the survival rate of disk-dominated galaxies in Lambda CDM is just high enough to explain the observed fractional representation of disk-dominated galaxies in the universe if the only mergers which lead to central spheroid formation are those with mass ratios M2/M1 > 0.3 and virial velocities Vvir,1 > 55 km/s. We discuss the physical origin of this criterion.

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arXiv2007

Self-regulated reionization

Recently, we have presented the first large-scale radiative transfer simulations of reionization. Here we present new simulations which extend the source halo mass range downward to 10^8M_solar, to capture the full range of halo masses thought to be primarily responsible for reionization by their star formation following atomic hydrogen radiative cooling and gravitational collapse. Haloes below about 10^9M_solar, however, are subject to Jeans-mass filtering in the ionized regions, which suppresses their baryonic content and their ability to release ionizing radiation. By including these smaller-mass haloes but accounting for their suppression, too, we find that reionization is ``self-regulating,'' as follows. As the mean ionized fraction rises, so does the fraction of the volume within which suppression occurs. Hence, the degree of suppression is related to the mean ionized fraction. Since low-mass haloes with high emissivity achieve a given mean ionized fraction earlier than do those with low efficiency, Jeans-mass filtering compensates for the difference in the emissivity of the suppressible haloes in these two cases. As a result, in the presence of lower-mass source haloes, reionization begins earlier, but the later stages of reionization and the time of overlap are dictated by the efficiency of the higher-mass haloes, independent of the efficiency of the suppressible, lower-mass haloes. Reionization histories consistent with current observational constraints are shown to be achievable with standard stellar sources in haloes above 10^8M_solar. Neither minihalos nor exotic sources are required, and the phenomenon of ``double reionization'' previously suggested does not occur. (abridged)

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arXiv2007

Current models of the observable consequences of cosmic reionization and their detectability

A number of large current experiments aim to detect the signatures of the Cosmic Reionization at redshifts z>6. Their success depends crucially on understanding the character of the reionization process and its observable consequences and designing the best strategies to use. We use large-scale simulations of cosmic reionization to evaluate the reionization signatures at redshifted 21-cm and small-scale CMB anisotropies in the best current model for the background universe, with fundamental cosmological parameters given by WMAP 3-year results (WMAP3). We find that the optimal frequency range for observing the ``global step'' of the 21-cm emission is 120-150 MHz, while statistical studies should aim at 140-160 MHz, observable by GMRT. Some strongly-nongaussian brightness features should be detectable at frequencies up to ~190 MHz. In terms of sensitivity-signal trade-off relatively low resolutions, corresponding to beams of at least a few arcminutes, are preferable. The CMB anisotropy signal from the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect from reionized patches peaks at tens of muK at arcminute scales and has an rms of ~1 muK, and should be observable by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and the South Pole Telescope. We discuss the various observational issues and the uncertainties involved, mostly related to the poorly-known reionization parameters and, to a lesser extend, to the uncertainties in the background cosmology.

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arXiv2007

Reionization: Characteristic Scales, Topology and Observability

Recently the numerical simulations of the process of reionization of the universe at z>6 have made a qualitative leap forward, reaching sufficient sizes and dynamic range to determine the characteristic scales of this process. This allowed making the first realistic predictions for a variety of observational signatures. We discuss recent results from large-scale radiative transfer and structure formation simulations on the observability of high-redshift Ly-alpha sources. We also briefly discuss the dependence of the characteristic scales and topology of the ionized and neutral patches on the reionization parameters.

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arXiv2007

Feedback from first radiation sources: H- photodissociation

During the epoch of reionization, the formation of radiation sources is accompanied by the growth of a H- photodissociating flux. We estimate the impact of this flux on the formation of molecular hydrogen and cooling in the first galaxies, assuming different types of radiation sources (e.g. Pop II and Pop III stars, miniquasars). We find that H- photodissociation reduces the formation of H2 molecules by a factor of ~1+1000k_s*x/(f_esc*delta), where x is the mean ionized fraction in the IGM, f_esc is the fraction of ionizing photons that escape from their progenitor halos, delta is the local gas overdensity and k_s is an order unity constant which depends on the type of radiation source. By the time a significant fraction of the universe becomes ionized, H- photodissociation may significantly reduce the H2 abundance and, with it, the primordial star formation rate, delaying the progress of reionization.

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arXiv2007

Simulating Reionization: Character and Observability

In recent years there has been considerable progress in our understanding of the nature and properties of the reionization process. In particular, the numerical simulations of this epoch have made a qualitative leap forward, reaching sufficiently large scales to derive the characteristic scales of the reionization process and thus allowing for realistic observational predictions. Our group has recently performed the first such large-scale radiative transfer simulations of reionization, run on top of state-of-the-art simulations of early structure formation. This allowed us to make the first realistic observational predictions about the Epoch of Reionization based on detailed radiative transfer and structure formation simulations. We discuss the basic features of reionization derived from our simulations and some recent results on the observational implications for the high-redshift Ly-alpha sources.

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arXiv2007

The Cluster-Merger Shock in 1E 0657-56: Faster than the Speeding Bullet?

Shock waves driven in the intergalactic medium during the merging of galaxy clusters have been observed in X-ray imaging and spectroscopy. Fluid motions inferred from the shock strength and morphology can be compared to the cold dark matter (CDM) distribution inferred from gravitational lensing. A detailed reconstruction of the CDM kinematics, however, must take into account the nontrivial response of the fluid intracluster medium to the collisionless CDM motions. We have carried out two-dimensional simulations of gas dynamics in cluster collisions. We analyze the relative motion of the clusters, the bow shock wave, and the contact discontinuity and relate these to X-ray data. We focus on the "bullet cluster," 1E 0657-56, a near head-on collision of unequal-mass clusters, for which the gas density and temperature jumps across the prominent bow shock imply a high shock velocity 4,700 km/s. The velocity of the fluid shock has been widely interpreted as the relative velocity of the CDM components. This need not be the case, however. An illustrative simulation finds that the present relative velocity of the CDM halos is 16% lower than that of the shock. While this conclusion is sensitive to the detailed initial mass and gas density profile of the colliding clusters, such a decrease of the inferred halo relative velocity would increase the likelihood of finding 1E 0657-56 in a LambdaCDM universe.

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arXiv2007

The Signature of Patchy Reionization in the Polarization Anisotropy of the CMB

The inhomogeneous ionization state of the universe when the first sources of ionizing radiation appeared should lead to anisotropies in the polarization of the cosmic microwave background. We use cosmological simulations of the process by which the first sources ionized the intergalactic medium to study the induced polarization anisotropies. We find that the polarization anisotropies have rms of order ~0.01 μK, and local peak values of ~0.1 μK, smaller than those due to gravitational lensing on small scales. The polarization direction is highly coherent over degree scales. This directional coherence is not expected from either primary anisotropy or gravitational lensing effects, making the largest signals due to inhomogeneous ionization relatively easy to isolate, should experiments achieve the necessary very low noise levels.

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arXiv2007

Heating and cooling of the intergalactic medium by resonance photons

During the epoch of reionization a large number of photons were produced with frequencies below the hydrogen Lyman limit. After redshifting into the closest resonance, these photons underwent multiple scatterings with atoms. We examine the effect of these scatterings on the temperature of the neutral intergalactic medium (IGM). Continuum photons, emitted between the Ly_alpha and Ly_gamma frequencies, heat the gas after being redshifted into the H Ly_alpha or D Ly_beta resonance. By contrast, photons emitted between the Ly_gamma and Ly-limit frequencies, produce effective cooling of the gas. Prior to reionization, the equilibrium temperature of ~100 K for hydrogen and helium atoms is set by these two competing processes. At the same time, Ly_beta resonance photons thermally decouple deuterium from other species, raising its temperature as high as 10^4 K. Our results have important consequences for the cosmic 21-cm background and the entropy floor of the early IGM which can affect star formation and reionization.

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arXiv2006

Does Radiative Feedback by the First Stars Promote or Prevent Second Generation Star Formation?

We study the effect of starlight from the first stars on the ability of other minihaloes in their neighborhood to form additional stars. The question of what the dynamical consequences were for these target minihaloes, of their exposure to the ionizing and dissociating starlight from the Pop III star requires a full radiation-hydrodynamics calculation. Towards this end, we have performed a series of detailed, 1D, radiation-hydrodynamical simulations. We have varied the distance to the source (and, hence, the flux) and the mass and evolutionary stage of the target haloes to quantify this effect. We find: (1) trapping of the I-front and its transformation from R-type to D-type, preceded by a shock front; (2) photoevaporation of the ionized gas (i.e. all gas originally located outside the trapping radius); (3) formation of an H_2 precursor shell which leads the I-front, stimulated by partial photoionization; and (4) the shock-induced formation of H_2 in the minihalo neutral core when the shock speeds up and partially ionizes the gas. The fate of the neutral core is mostly determined by the response of the core to this shock front, which leads to molecular cooling and collapse that, when compared to the same halo without external radiation, is either: (a) expedited, (b) delayed, (c) unaltered, or (d) reversed or prevented, depending upon the flux (i.e. distance to the source) and the halo mass and evolutionary stage. Roughly speaking, most haloes that were destined to cool, collapse, and form stars in the absence of external radiation are found to do so even when exposed to the first Pop III star in their neighborhood, while those that would not have done so are still not able to. (abridged)

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arXiv2006

The Kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect from Radiative Transfer Simulations of Patchy Reionization

We present the first calculation of the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (kSZ) effect due to the inhomogeneous reionization of the universe based on detailed large-scale radiative transfer simulations of reionization. The resulting sky power spectra peak at l=2000-8000 with maximum values of l^2C_l~1\times10^{-12}. The peak scale is determined by the typical size of the ionized regions and roughly corresponds to the ionized bubble sizes observed in our simulations, ~5-20 Mpc. The kSZ anisotropy signal from reionization dominates the primary CMB signal above l=3000. This predicted kSZ signal at arcminute scales is sufficiently strong to be detectable by upcoming experiments, like the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and South Pole Telescope which are expected to have ~1' resolution and ~muK sensitivity. The extended and patchy nature of the reionization process results in a boost of the peak signal in power by approximately one order of magnitude compared to a uniform reionization scenario, while roughly tripling the signal compared with that based upon the assumption of gradual but spatially uniform reionization. At large scales the patchy kSZ signal depends largely on the ionizing source efficiencies and the large-scale velocity fields: sources which produce photons more efficiently yield correspondingly higher signals. The introduction of sub-grid gas clumping in the radiative transfer simulations produces significantly more power at small scales, and more non-Gaussian features, but has little effect at large scales. The patchy nature of the reionization process roughly doubles the total observed kSZ signal for l~3000-10^4 compared to non-patchy scenarios with the same total electron-scattering optical depth.

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arXiv2006

Recognizing the First Radiation Sources Through Their 21-cm Signature

At the beginning of the reionization epoch, radiation sources produce fluctuations in the redshifted 21-cm background. We show that different types of sources (such as miniquasars, Pop II and III stars, supernovae, etc.) produce distinct signatures in the 21-cm signal radial profiles and statistical fluctuations, through which they can be identified. Further, we show that the 21-cm signal from X-ray emitting sources is much easier to observe than was expected, due to a previously neglected pumping mechanism.

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