Kavli Affiliate: Nickolay Y. Gnedin
| First 5 Authors: Ella Werre, David Robinson, Camille Avestruz, Nickolay Y. Gnedin,
| Summary:
Quasar absorption lines provide a unique window to the relationship between
galaxies and the intergalactic medium during the Epoch of Reionization. In
particular, high redshift quasars enable measurements of the neutral hydrogen
content of the universe. However, the limited sample size of observed quasar
spectra, particularly at the highest redshifts, hampers our ability to fully
characterize the intergalactic medium during this epoch from observations
alone. In this work, we characterize the distributions of mean opacities of the
intergalactic medium in simulations from the Cosmic Reionization on Computers
(CROC) project. We find that the distribution of mean opacities along
sightlines follows a non-trivial distribution that cannot be easily
approximated by a known distribution. When comparing the cumulative
distribution function of mean opacities measurements in subsamples of sample
sizes similar to observational measurements from the literature, we find
consistency between CROC and observations at redshifts $zlesssim 5.7$.
However, at higher redshifts ($zgtrsim5.7$), the cumulative distribution
function of mean opacities from CROC is notably narrower than those from
observed quasar sightlines implying that observations probe a systematically
more opaque intergalactic medium at higher redshifts than the intergalactic
medium in CROC boxes at these same redshifts. This is consistent with previous
analyses that indicate that the universe is reionized too early in CROC
simulations.
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