Early star-forming galaxies and the reionization of the Universe

Robertson, Brant; Ellis, Richard S.; Dunlop, James; McLure, R. J.; Stark, Daniel P.

doi:10.1038/nature09527

Cited by 335 publications

(371 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…Willott et al 2010;Fontanot et al 2012), but they are key players at lower redshifts since they ensure the second reionisation of helium (McQuinn et al 2009). Faint star-forming galaxies at redshifts z ∼ > 6 have therefore been postulated as the most likely sources of reionisation, and their time-dependent abundance and spectral properties are crucial ingredients for understanding how intergalactic hydrogen became reionised (for reviews, see Fan et al 2006;Robertson et al 2010;Loeb & Furlanetto 2013). The high-redshift galaxy UV luminosity function also provides a competitive observational constraint on EoR.…”

Section: Observational Status and Current Constraints On Reionisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new parameterization of the reionisation history

Douspis

Aghanim

Ilić

et al. 2015

A&A

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Motivated by the current constraints on the epoch of reionisation from recent cosmic microwave background observations, ionising background measurements of star-forming galaxies, and low redshifts line-of-sight probes, we propose a new data-motivated parameterisation of the history of the average ionisation fraction. This parameterisation describes a flexible redshift-asymmetric reionisation process in two regimes that is capable of fitting all the current constraints.

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Section: Observational Status and Current Constraints On Reionisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A new parameterization of the reionisation history

Douspis

Aghanim

Ilić

et al. 2015

A&A

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show abstract

“…It is widely postulated that galaxies provided the bulk of ionization photons, but low-level active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity (with their likely very high escape fractions of ionizing photons) is still a possibility (e.g., Giallongo et al 2015). To improve our knowledge about the importance of galaxies on reionization, we should measure their ionizing photon production rate (through their star formation rate (SFR) density) and their ionizing photon escape fraction (Robertson et al 2010). We should also measure their stellar mass and, under reasonable assumptions about their star formation history, infer how many ionizing photons they produced in the past.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

SPITZER ULTRA FAINT SURVEY PROGRAM (SURFS UP). II. IRAC-DETECTED LYMAN-BREAK GALAXIES AT 6 ≲ z ≲ 10 BEHIND STRONG-LENSING CLUSTERS

Huang

Bradač

Lemaux

et al. 2016

ApJ

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We study the stellar population properties of the IRAC-detected 6  z  10 galaxy candidates from the Spitzer UltRa Faint SUrvey Program. Using the Lyman Break selection technique, we find a total of 17 galaxy candidates at 6  z  10 from Hubble Space Telescope images (including the full-depth images from the Hubble Frontier Fields program for MACS 1149 and MACS 0717) that have detections at signal-to-noise ratios  3 in at least one of the IRAC 3.6 and 4.5 μm channels. According to the best mass models available for the surveyed galaxy clusters, these IRAC-detected galaxy candidates are magnified by factors of ∼1.2-5.5. Due to the magnification of the foreground galaxy clusters, the rest-frame UV absolute magnitudes M 1600 are between −21.2 and −18.9 mag, while their intrinsic stellar masses are between 2×10 8 M e and 2.9×10 9 M e . We identify two Lyα emitters in our sample from the Keck DEIMOS spectra, one at z Lyα =6.76 (in RXJ 1347) and one at z Lyα =6.32 (in MACS 0454). We find that 4 out of 17 z  6 galaxy candidates are favored by z  1 solutions when IRAC fluxes are included in photometric redshift fitting. We also show that IRAC [3.6]-[4.5] color, when combined with photometric redshift, can be used to identify galaxies which likely have strong nebular emission lines or obscured active galactic nucleus contributions within certain redshift windows.

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“…Most of the current models are built on the observationally supported notion that reionization is driven mainly by star-forming galaxies (e.g., Choudhury & Ferrara 2007;Volonteri & Gnedin 2009;Loeb 2009;Robertson et al 2010;Raičević, Theuns, & Lacey 2011;Fontanot, Cristiani, & Vanzella 2012). A natural implication of these models is a strong coupling between reionization and galaxy formation caused by ionizing radiative feedback (e.g., Ciardi & Ferrara 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatially adaptive radiation-hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation during cosmological reionization

Pawlik

Schaye

Vecchia

2015

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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We present a suite of cosmological radiation-hydrodynamical simulations of the assembly of galaxies driving the reionization of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at z 6. The simulations account for the hydrodynamical feedback from photoionization heating and the explosion of massive stars as supernovae (SNe). Our reference simulation, which was carried out in a box of size 25 h −1 comoving Mpc using 2 × 512 3 particles, produces a reasonable reionization history and matches the observed UV luminosity function of galaxies. Simulations with different box sizes and resolutions are used to investigate numerical convergence, and simulations in which either SNe or photoionization heating or both are turned off, are used to investigate the role of feedback from star formation. Ionizing radiation is treated using accurate radiative transfer at the high spatially adaptive resolution at which the hydrodynamics is carried out. SN feedback strongly reduces the star formation rates (SFRs) over nearly the full mass range of simulated galaxies and is required to yield SFRs in agreement with observations. Photoheating helps to suppress star formation in low-mass galaxies, but its impact on the cosmic SFR is small. Because the effect of photoheating is masked by the strong SN feedback, it does not imprint a signature on the UV galaxy luminosity function, although we note that our resolution is insufficient to model star-forming minihaloes cooling through molecular hydrogen transitions. Photoheating does provide a strong positive feedback on reionization because it smooths density fluctuations in the IGM, which lowers the IGM recombination rate substantially. Our simulations demonstrate a tight non-linear coupling of galaxy formation and reionization, motivating the need for the accurate and simultaneous inclusion of photoheating and SN feedback in models of the early Universe.

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Early star-forming galaxies and the reionization of the Universe

Cited by 335 publications

References 86 publications

A new parameterization of the reionisation history

A new parameterization of the reionisation history

SPITZER ULTRA FAINT SURVEY PROGRAM (SURFS UP). II. IRAC-DETECTED LYMAN-BREAK GALAXIES AT 6 ≲ z ≲ 10 BEHIND STRONG-LENSING CLUSTERS

Spatially adaptive radiation-hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation during cosmological reionization

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