Simulating intergalactic medium reionization

We have studied the intergalactic medium (IGM) reionization process in its full cosmological context, including structure evolution and a realistic galaxy population. We have used a combination of high-resolution N-body simulations (to describe the dark matter and diffuse gas component), a semi-analytical model of galaxy formation (to track the evolution of the sources of ionizing radiation) and the Monte Carlo radiative transfer code crash (to follow the propagation of ionizing photons into the IGM). The process has been followed in the largest volume ever used for this type of study, a field region of the Universe with a comoving length of L∼ 20 h−1 Mpc, embedded in a much larger cosmological simulation. To assess the effect of environment on the reionization process, the same radiative transfer simulations have been performed on a 10 h−1 Mpc comoving box, centred on a clustered region. We find that, to account for the all-ionizing radiation, objects with total masses of M∼ 109 M⊙ must be resolved. In this case, the simulated stellar population produces a volume-averaged ionization fraction xv= 0.999 by z∼ 8, consistent with observations without requiring any additional sources of ionization. We also find that environment substantially affects the reionization process. In fact, although the simulated protocluster occupies a smaller volume and produces a higher number of ionizing photons, it becomes totally ionized later. This is because high-density regions, which are more common in the protocluster, are difficult to ionize because of their high recombination rates.