arXiv subjects

Philip F. Hopkins

Publications and source records attributed to Philip F. Hopkins.

At least 163 records · Page 9Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Effects of Different Cosmic Ray Transport Models on Galaxy Formation

Cosmic rays (CRs) with ~GeV energies can contribute significantly to the energy and pressure budget in the interstellar, circumgalactic, and intergalactic medium (ISM, CGM, IGM). Recent cosmological simulations have begun to explore these effects, but almost all studies have been restricted to simplified models with constant CR diffusivity and/or streaming speeds. Physical models of CR propagation/scattering via extrinsic turbulence and self-excited waves predict transport coefficients which are complicated functions of local plasma properties. In a companion paper, we consider a wide range of observational constraints to identify proposed physically-motivated cosmic-ray propagation scalings which satisfy both detailed Milky Way (MW) and extra-galactic $γ$-ray constraints. Here, we compare the effects of these models relative to simpler 'diffusion+streaming' models on galaxy and CGM properties at dwarf through MW mass scales. The physical models predict large local variations in CR diffusivity, with median diffusivity increasing with galacto-centric radii and decreasing with galaxy mass and redshift. These effects lead to a more rapid dropoff of CR energy density in the CGM (compared to simpler models), in turn producing weaker effects of CRs on galaxy star formation rates (SFRs), CGM absorption profiles and galactic outflows. The predictions of the more physical CR models tend to lie 'in between' models which ignore CRs entirely and models which treat CRs with constant diffusivity.

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arXiv2022

A Consistent Reduced-Speed-of-Light Formulation of Cosmic Ray Transport Valid in Weak and Strong-Scattering Regimes

We derive a consistent set of moments equations for CR-magnetohydrodynamics, assuming a gyrotropic distribution function (DF). Unlike previous efforts we derive a closure, akin to the M1 closure in radiation hydrodynamics (RHD), that is valid in both the nearly-isotropic-DF and/or strong-scattering regimes, and the arbitrarily-anisotropic DF or free-streaming regimes, as well as allowing for anisotropic scattering and transport/magnetic field structure. We present the appropriate two-moment closure and equations for various choices of evolved variables, including the CR phase space distribution function, number density, total energy, kinetic energy, and their fluxes or higher moments, and the appropriate coupling terms to the gas. We show that this naturally includes and generalizes a variety of terms including convection/fluid motion, anisotropic CR pressure, streaming, diffusion, gyro-resonant/streaming losses, and re-acceleration. We discuss how this extends previous treatments of CR transport including diffusion and moments methods and popular forms of the Fokker-Planck equation, as well as how this differs from the analogous M1-RHD equations. We also present two different methods for incorporating a reduced speed of light (RSOL) to reduce timestep limitations: in both we carefully address where the RSOL (versus true c) must appear for the correct behavior to be recovered in all interesting limits, and show how current implementations of CRs with a RSOL neglect some additional terms.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Why do Black Holes Trace Bulges (& Central Surface Densities), Instead of Galaxies as a Whole?

Previous studies of fueling black holes (BHs) in galactic nuclei have argued (on scales ~0.01-1000pc) accretion is dynamical with inflow rates $\dot{M}\simη\,M_{\rm gas}/t_{\rm dyn}$ in terms of gas mass $M_{\rm gas}$, dynamical time $t_{\rm dyn}$, and some $η$. But these models generally neglected expulsion of gas by stellar feedback, or considered extremely high densities where expulsion is inefficient. Studies of star formation, however, have shown on sub-kpc scales the expulsion efficiency $f_{\rm wind}=M_{\rm ejected}/M_{\rm total}$ scales with the gravitational acceleration as $(1-f_{\rm wind})/f_{\rm wind}\sim\bar{a}_{\rm grav}/\langle\dot{p}/m_{\ast}\rangle\sim Σ_{\rm eff}/Σ_{\rm crit}$ where $\bar{a}_{\rm grav}\equiv G\,M_{\rm tot}(<r)/r^{2}$ and $\langle\dot{p}/m_{\ast}\rangle$ is the momentum injection rate from young stars. Adopting this as the simplest correction for stellar feedback, $η\rightarrow η\,(1-f_{\rm wind})$, we show this provides a more accurate description of simulations with stellar feedback at low densities. This has immediate consequences, predicting e.g. the slope and normalization of the $M-σ$ and $M-M_{\rm bulge}$ relation, $L_{\rm AGN}-$SFR relations, and explanations for outliers in compact Es. Most strikingly, because star formation simulations show expulsion is efficient ($f_{\rm wind}\sim1$) below total-mass surface density $M_{\rm tot}/π\,r^{2}<Σ_{\rm crit}\sim3\times10^{9}\,M_{\odot}\,{\rm kpc^{-2}}$ (where $Σ_{\rm crit}=\langle\dot{p}/m_{\ast}\rangle/(π\,G)$), BH mass is predicted to specifically trace host galaxy properties above a critical surface brightness $Σ_{\rm crit}$ (B-band $μ_{\rm B}^{\rm crit}\sim 19\,{\rm mag\,arcsec^{-2}}$). This naturally explains why BH masses preferentially reflect bulge properties or central surface-densities ($Σ_{1\,{\rm kpc}}$), not 'total' galaxy properties.

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arXiv2022

First Predicted Cosmic Ray Spectra, Primary-to-Secondary Ratios, and Ionization Rates from MHD Galaxy Formation Simulations

We present the first simulations evolving resolved spectra of cosmic rays (CRs) from MeV-TeV energies (including electrons, positrons, (anti)protons, and heavier nuclei), in live kinetic-MHD galaxy simulations with star formation and feedback. We utilize new numerical methods including terms often neglected in historical models, comparing Milky Way analogues with phenomenological scattering coefficients $ν$ to Solar-neighborhood (LISM) observations (spectra, B/C, $e^{+}/e^{-}$, $\bar{p}/p$, $^{10}$Be/$^{9}$Be, ionization, $γ$-rays). We show it is possible to reproduce observations with simple single-power-law injection and scattering coefficients (scaling with rigidity $R$), similar to previous (non-dynamical) calculations. We also find: (1) The circum-galactic medium in realistic galaxies necessarily imposes a $\sim10\,$kpc CR scattering halo, influencing the required $ν(R)$. (2) Increasing the normalization of $ν(R)$ re-normalizes CR secondary spectra but also changes primary spectral slopes, owing to source distribution and loss effects. (3) Diffusive/turbulent reacceleration is unimportant and generally sub-dominant to gyroresonant/streaming losses, which are sub-dominant to adiabatic/convective terms dominated by $\sim0.1-1\,$kpc turbulent/fountain motions. (4) CR spectra vary considerably across galaxies; certain features can arise from local structure rather than transport physics. (5) Systematic variation in CR ionization rates between LISM and molecular clouds (or Galactic position) arises naturally without invoking alternative sources. (6) Abundances of CNO nuclei require most CR acceleration occurs around when reverse shocks form in SNe, not in OB wind bubbles or later Sedov-Taylor stages of SNe remnants.

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arXiv2022

Exploring supermassive black hole physics and galaxy quenching across halo mass in FIRE cosmological zoom simulations

Feedback from accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs) is thought to be a primary driver of quenching in massive galaxies, but the best way to implement SMBH physics into galaxy formation simulations remains ambiguous. As part of the Feedback in Realistic Environments (FIRE) project, we explore the effects of different modeling choices for SMBH accretion and feedback in a suite of $\sim500$ cosmological zoom-in simulations across a wide range of halo mass (10^10-10^13 Msun). Within the suite, we vary the numerical schemes for BH accretion and feedback, the accretion efficiency, and the strength of mechanical, radiative, and cosmic ray feedback independently. We then compare the outcomes to observed galaxy scaling relations. We find several models that satisfy the observational constraints, and for which the energetics in different feedback channels are physically plausible. Interestingly, cosmic rays accelerated by SMBHs play an important role in many successful models. However, it is non-trivial to reproduce scaling relations across halo mass, and many model variations produce qualitatively incorrect results regardless of parameter choices. The growth of stellar and BH mass are closely related: for example, over-massive BHs tend to over-quench galaxies. BH mass is most strongly affected by the choice of accretion efficiency in high-mass halos, but by feedback efficiency in low-mass halos. The amount of star formation suppression by SMBH feedback in low-mass halos is determined primarily by the time-integrated feedback energy. For massive galaxies, the "responsiveness" of a model (i.e. how quickly and powerfully the BH responds to gas available for accretion) is an additional important factor for quenching.

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arXiv2022

Rapid disc settling and the transition from bursty to steady star formation in Milky Way-mass galaxies

Recent observations and simulations indicate substantial evolution in the properties of galaxies with time, wherein rotationally-supported and steady thin discs (like those frequently observed in the local universe) emerge from galaxies that are clumpy, irregular, and have bursty star formation rates (SFRs). To better understand the progenitors of local disc galaxies we carry out an analysis of three FIRE-2 simulated galaxies with a mass similar to the Milky Way at redshift z=0. We show that all three galaxies transition from bursty to steady SFRs at a redshift between z=0.5 and z=0.8, and that this transition coincides with a rapid (< ~1 Gyr) emergence of a rotationally-supported interstellar medium (ISM).In the late phase with steady SFR, the rotational energy comprises > ~90% of the total kinetic + thermal energy in the ISM, and is roughly half the gravitational energy. By contrast, during the early phase with bursty star formation, the ISM has a quasi-spheroidal morphology and its energy budget is dominated by quasi-isotropic flows including turbulence and coherent inflows/outflows. This result, that rotational support is subdominant at early times, challenges the common application of equilibrium disc models to the high-redshift progenitors of Milky Way-like galaxies. We further find that the formation of a rotation-supported ISM coincides with the formation of a thermal energy-supported inner circumgalactic medium (CGM). Before this transition, the inner CGM is also supported by turbulence and coherent flows, indicating that at early times there is no clear boundary between the ISM and inner CGM.

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arXiv2022

FIRE-3: Updated Stellar Evolution Models, Yields, & Microphysics and Fitting Functions for Applications in Galaxy Simulations

Increasingly, uncertainties in predictions from galaxy formation simulations (at sub-Milky Way masses) are dominated by uncertainties in stellar evolution inputs. In this paper, we present the full set of updates from the FIRE-2 version of the Feedback In Realistic Environments (FIRE) project code, to the next version, FIRE-3. While the transition from FIRE-1 to FIRE-2 focused on improving numerical methods, here we update the stellar evolution tracks used to determine stellar feedback inputs, e.g. stellar mass-loss (O/B and AGB), spectra (luminosities and ionization rates), and supernova rates (core-collapse and Ia), as well as detailed mass-dependent yields. We also update the low-temperature cooling and chemistry, to enable improved accuracy at $T \lesssim 10^{4}\,$K and densities $n\gg 1\,{\rm cm^{-3}}$, and the meta-galactic ionizing background. All of these synthesize newer empirical constraints on these quantities and updated stellar evolution and yield models from a number of groups, addressing different aspects of stellar evolution. To make the updated models as accessible as possible, we provide fitting functions for all of the relevant updated tracks, yields, etc, in a form specifically designed so they can be directly 'plugged in' to existing galaxy formation simulations. We also summarize the default FIRE-3 implementations of 'optional' physics, including spectrally-resolved cosmic rays and supermassive black hole growth and feedback.

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arXiv2022

Exploring metallicity-dependent rates of Type Ia supernovae and their impact on galaxy formation

Type Ia supernovae play a critical role in stellar feedback and elemental enrichment in galaxies. Recent transient surveys like the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernova (ASAS-SN) and the Dark Energy Survey (DES) find that the specific Ia rate at z ~ 0 may be ~ 15-50 times higher in lower-mass galaxies than at Milky Way-mass. Independently, Milky Way observations show that the close-binary fraction of solar-type stars is higher at lower metallicity. Motivated by these observations, we use the FIRE-2 cosmological zoom-in simulations to explore the impact of varying Ia rate models, including metallicity dependence, on galaxies across a range of stellar masses: 10^7 Msun - 10^{11} Msun. First, we benchmark our simulated star-formation histories (SFHs) against observations. We show that assumed SFHs and stellar mass functions play a major role in determining the degree of tension between observations and metallicity-independent Ia rate models, and potentially cause ASAS-SN and DES observations to be much more consistent with each other than might naively appear. Models in which the Ia rate increases with decreasing metallicity (as ~ Z^{-0.5} to Z^{-1}) provide significantly better agreement with observations. Encouragingly, these increases in Ia rate (> 10 times in low-mass galaxies) do not significantly impact galaxy stellar masses and morphologies: effective radii, axis ratios, and v/sigma remain largely unaffected except for our most extreme rate models. We explore implications for both [Fe/H] and [alpha/Fe] enrichment: metallicity-dependent Ia rate models can improve agreement with observed stellar mass-metallicity relations in low-mass galaxies. Our results demonstrate that a wide range of metallicity-dependent Ia models are viable for galaxy formation and motivate future work in this area.

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arXiv2022

Galaxies lacking dark matter produced by close encounters in a cosmological simulation

The standard cold dark matter plus cosmological constant model predicts that galaxies form within dark-matter haloes, and that low-mass galaxies are more dark-matter dominated than massive ones. The unexpected discovery of two low-mass galaxies lacking dark matter immediately provoked concerns about the standard cosmology and ignited explorations of alternatives, including self-interacting dark matter and modified gravity. Apprehension grew after several cosmological simulations using the conventional model failed to form adequate numerical analogues with comparable internal characteristics (stellar masses, sizes, velocity dispersions and morphologies). Here we show that the standard paradigm naturally produces galaxies lacking dark matter with internal characteristics in agreement with observations. Using a state-of-the-art cosmological simulation and a meticulous galaxy-identification technique, we find that extreme close encounters with massive neighbours can be responsible for this. We predict that approximately 30 percent of massive central galaxies (with at least 1e11 solar masses in stars) harbour at least one dark-matter-deficient satellite (with 1e8 - 1e9 solar masses in stars). This distinctive class of galaxies provides an additional layer in our understanding of the role of interactions in shaping galactic properties. Future observations surveying galaxies in the aforementioned regime will provide a crucial test of this scenario.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

Evidence for a Vast Prograde Stellar Stream in the Solar Vicinity

Massive dwarf galaxies that merge with the Milky Way on prograde orbits can be dragged into the disk plane before being completely disrupted. Such mergers can contribute to an accreted stellar disk and a dark matter disk. We present evidence for Nyx, a vast new stellar stream in the vicinity of the Sun, that may provide the first indication that such an event occurred in the Milky Way. We identify about 500 stars that have coherent radial and prograde motion in this stream using a catalog of accreted stars built by applying deep learning methods to the second Gaia data release. Nyx is concentrated within $\pm 2$ kpc of the Galactic midplane and spans the full radial range studied (6.5-9.5 kpc). The kinematics of Nyx stars are distinct from those of both the thin and thick disk. In particular, its rotational speed lags the disk by $\sim 80$ km/s and its stars follow more eccentric orbits. A small number of Nyx stars have chemical abundances or inferred ages; from these, we deduce that Nyx stars have a peak metallicity of [Fe/H] $\sim -0.5$ and ages $\sim $10-13 Gyr. Taken together with the kinematic observations, these results strongly favor the interpretation that Nyx is the remnant of a disrupted dwarf galaxy. To further justify this interpretation, we explicitly demonstrate that metal-rich, prograde streams like Nyx can be found in the disk plane of Milky Way-like galaxies using the FIRE hydrodynamic simulations. Future spectroscopic studies will be able to validate whether Nyx stars originate from a single progenitor.

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arXiv2022

Black hole -- galaxy scaling relations in FIRE: the importance of black hole location and mergers

The concurrent growth of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and their host galaxies remains to be fully explored, especially at high redshift. While often understood as a consequence of self-regulation via AGN feedback, it can also be explained by alternative SMBH accretion models. Here, we expand on previous work by studying the growth of SMBHs with the help of a large suite of cosmological zoom-in simulations (MassiveFIRE) that are part of the Feedback in Realistic Environments (FIRE) project. The growth of SMBHs is modelled in post-processing with different black hole accretion models, placements, and merger treatments, and validated by comparing to on-the-fly calculations. Scaling relations predicted by the gravitational torque driven accretion (GTDA) model agree with observations at low redshift without the need for AGN feedback, in contrast to models in which the accretion rate depends strongly on SMBH mass. At high redshift, we find deviations from the local scaling relations in line with previous theoretical results. In particular, SMBHs are under-massive, presumably due to stellar feedback, but start to grow efficiently once their host galaxies reach $M_* \sim 10^{10} M_{\odot}$. We analyse and explain these findings in the context of a simple analytic model. Finally, we show that the predicted scaling relations depend sensitively on the SMBH location and the efficiency of SMBH merging, particularly in low-mass systems. These findings highlight the relevance of understanding the evolution of SMBH-galaxy scaling relations to predict the rate of gravitational wave signals from SMBH mergers across cosmic history.

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arXiv2021

The Acoustic Resonant Drag Instability with a Spectrum of Grain Sizes

We study the linear growth and nonlinear saturation of the "acoustic Resonant Drag Instability" (RDI) when the dust grains, which drive the instability, have a wide, continuous spectrum of different sizes. This physics is generally applicable to dusty winds driven by radiation pressure, such as occurs around red-giant stars, star-forming regions, or active galactic nuclei. Depending on the physical size of the grains compared to the wavelength of the radiation field that drives the wind, two qualitatively different regimes emerge. In the case of grains that are larger than the radiation's wavelength -- termed the constant-drift regime -- the grain's equilibrium drift velocity through the gas is approximately independent of grain size, leading to strong correlations between differently sized grains that persist well into the saturated nonlinear turbulence. For grains that are smaller than the radiation's wavelength -- termed the non-constant-drift regime -- the linear instability grows more slowly than the single-grain-size RDI and only the larger grains exhibit RDI-like behavior in the saturated state. A detailed study of grain clumping and grain-grain collisions shows that outflows in the constant-drift regime may be effective sites for grain growth through collisions, with large collision rates but low collision velocities.

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arXiv2021

On the optical properties of Resonant Drag Instabilities: Variability of Asymptotic Giant Branch and R Coronae Borealis stars

In dusty cool-star outflow or ejection events around AGB or RCB-like stars, dust is accelerated by radiation from the star and coupled to the gas via collisional drag forces. But it has recently been shown that such dust-gas mixtures are unstable to a super-class of instabilities called the resonant drag instabilities (RDIs), which promote dust clustering. We therefore consider idealized simulations of the RDIs operating on a spectrum of dust grain sizes subject to radiative acceleration (allowing for different grain optical properties), coupled to the gas with a realistic drag law, including or excluding the effects of magnetic fields and charged grains, and calculate for the first time how the RDIs could contribute to observed variability. We show that the RDIs naturally produce significant variations ($\sim 10-20\%$ $1σ$-level) in the extinction, corresponding to $\sim 0.1-1\,$mag level in the stellar types above, on timescales of order months to a year. The fluctuations are surprisingly robust to finite source-size effects as they are dominated by large-scale modes, which also means their spatial structure could be resolved in some nearby systems. We also quantify how this produces variations in the line-of-sight grain size-distribution. All of these variations are similar to those observed, suggesting that the RDIs may play a key role driving observed variability in dust extinction within dusty outflow/ejection events around cool stars. We further propose that the measured variations in grain sizes could directly be used to identify the presence of the RDIs in close by systems with observations.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2021

Probing Hot Gas Components of Circumgalactic Medium in Cosmological Simulations with the Thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect

The thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (tSZ) effect is a powerful tool with the potential for constraining directly the properties of the hot gas that dominates dark matter halos because it measures pressure and thus thermal energy density. Studying this hot component of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) is important because it is strongly impacted by star-formation and active galactic nuclei (AGN) activity in galaxies, participating in the feedback loop that regulates star and black hole mass growth in galaxies. We study the tSZ effect across a wide halo mass range using three cosmological hydrodynamical simulations: Illustris-TNG, EAGLE, and FIRE-2. Specifically, we present the scaling relation between tSZ signal and halo mass and radial profiles of gas density, temperature, and pressure for all three simulations. The analysis includes comparisons to Planck tSZ observations and to the thermal pressure profile inferred from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) measurements. We compare these tSZ data to the simulations to interpret the measurements in terms of feedback and accretion processes in the CGM. We also identify as-yet unobserved potential signatures of these processes that may be visible in future measurements, which will have the capability of measuring tSZ signals to even lower masses. We also perform internal comparisons between runs with different physical assumptions. We conclude: (1) there is strong evidence for the impact of feedback at $R_{500}$ but that this impact decreases by $5R_{500}$, and (2) the thermodynamic profiles of the CGM are highly dependent on the implemented model, such as cosmic-ray or AGN feedback prescriptions.

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arXiv2021

Seeds Don't Sink: Even Massive Black Hole "Seeds" Cannot Migrate to Galaxy Centers Efficiently

Possible formation scenarios of supermassive black holes in the early universe include rapid growth from less massive seed black holes (BHs) via super-Eddington accretion or runaway mergers, yet both of these scenarios would require seed BHs to efficiently sink to and be trapped in the galactic center via dynamical friction. This may not be true for their complicated dynamics in clumpy high-$z$ galaxies. In this work we study this "sinking problem" with state-of-the-art high-resolution cosmological simulations, combined with both direct $N$-body integration of seed BH trajectories and post-processing of randomly generated test particles with a newly developed dynamical friction estimator. We find that seed BHs less massive than $10^8\,M_\odot$ (i.e., all but the already-supermassive seeds) cannot efficiently sink in typical high-$z$ galaxies. We also discuss two possible solutions: dramatically increasing the number of seeds such that one seed can end up trapped in the galactic center by chance, or seed BHs being embedded in dense structures (e.g. star clusters) with effective masses above the mass threshold. We discuss the limitations of both solutions.

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arXiv2021

Characterizing mass, momentum, energy and metal outflow rates of multi-phase galactic winds in the FIRE-2 cosmological simulations

We characterize mass, momentum, energy and metal outflow rates of multi-phase galactic winds in a suite of FIRE-2 cosmological "zoom-in" simulations from the Feedback in Realistic Environments (FIRE) project. We analyze simulations of low-mass dwarfs, intermediate-mass dwarfs, Milky Way-mass halos, and high-redshift massive halos. Consistent with previous work, we find that dwarfs eject about 100 times more gas from their interstellar medium (ISM) than they form in stars, while this mass "loading factor" drops below one in massive galaxies. Most of the mass is carried by the hot phase ($>10^5$ K) in massive halos and the warm phase ($10^3-10^5$ K) in dwarfs; cold outflows ($<10^3$ K) are negligible except in high-redshift dwarfs. Energy, momentum and metal loading factors from the ISM are of order unity in dwarfs and significantly lower in more massive halos. Hot outflows have $2-5\times$ higher specific energy than needed to escape from the gravitational potential of dwarf halos; indeed, in dwarfs, the mass, momentum, and metal outflow rates increase with radius whereas energy is roughly conserved, indicating swept up halo gas. Burst-averaged mass loading factors tend to be larger during more powerful star formation episodes and when the inner halo is not virialized, but we see effectively no trend with the dense ISM gas fraction. We discuss how our results can guide future controlled numerical experiments that aim to elucidate the key parameters governing galactic winds and the resulting associated preventative feedback.

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arXiv2021

Progenitor-mass-dependent yields amplify intrinsic scatter in dwarf-galaxy elemental abundance ratios

In hydrodynamic simulations, prevailing subgrid chemical-evolution models often use a single, "IMF-averaged" supernova yield, ignoring variations in elemental abundance ratios (particularly [$α$/Fe]) in the ejecta of higher- and lower-mass supernova progenitors within a stellar population. To understand the impact of this simplification and understand the impact of more explicit models, we run FIRE simulations of a dwarf galaxy $(M_\star($z = 0$) \sim 10^6 M_\odot)$ using nucleosynthetic yields from the NuGrid database that depend on the stellar progenitor mass and metallicity. While NuGrid exhibits lower aggregate $α$-element production than default-FIRE yields, we find that its explicit mass dependence substantially widens the intrinsic scatter in the simulated [Fe/H]-[$α$/Fe] -- a phenomenon potentially visible in recent observations of dwarf galaxies.

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arXiv2021

Neutral CGM as damped Lyα absorbers at high redshift

Recent searches for the hosts of high-redshift ($z \sim 4$) damped Ly$α$ absorbers (DLAs) have detected bright galaxies at distances of tens of kpc from the DLA. Using the FIRE-2 cosmological zoom simulations, we argue that these relatively large distances are due to a predominantly cool and neutral inner circumgalactic medium (CGM) surrounding high-redshift galaxies. The inner CGM is cool because of the short cooling time of hot gas in $\lesssim10^{12}$ Msun halos, which implies that accretion and feedback energy are radiated quickly, while it is neutral due to the high volume densities and column densities at high redshift which shield cool gas from photoionization. Our analysis predicts large DLA covering factors ($\gtrsim50\%$) out to impact parameters $\sim0.3((1 + z)/5)^{3/2}\ R_{\rm vir}$ from the central galaxies at $z > 1$, equivalent to a physical distance of $\sim 21 M_{12}^{1/3} ((1 + z)/5)^{1/2}$ kpc ($R_{\rm vir}$ and $M_{12}$ are the halo virial radius and mass in units of $10^{12}$ Msun, respectively). This implies that DLA covering factors at $z \sim 4$ may be comparable to unity out to a distance $\sim 10$ times larger than stellar half-mass radii. A predominantly neutral inner CGM in the early universe suggests that its mass and metallicity can be directly constrained by CGM absorption surveys, without resorting to large ionization corrections as required for ionized CGM.

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