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We study supernova-driven galactic outflows as a mechanism for injecting turbulence in the intergalactic medium (IGM) far from galaxies. To this aim we follow the evolution of a 10^13 Msun galaxy along its merger tree, with carefully calibrated prescriptions for star formation and wind efficiencies. At z~3 the majority of the bubbles around galaxies are old (ages >1Gyr), i.e. they contain metals expelled by their progenitors at earlier times; their filling factor increases with time reaching about 10% at z<2. The energy deposited by these expanding shocks in the IGM is predominantly in kinetic form (mean energy density of 1 mu eV cm^-3, about 2-3 x the thermal one), which is rapidly converted in disordered motions by instabilities, finally resulting in a fully developed turbulent spectrum whose evolution is followed through a spectral transfer function approach. The derived mean IGM turbulent Doppler parameter, b_t, peaks at z~1 at about 1.5 km/s with maximum b_t = 25 km/s. The shape of the b_t distribution does not significantly evolve with redshift but undergoes a continuous shift towards lower b_t values with time, as a result of bubble aging. We find also a clear trend of decreasing b_t with N_HI and a more complex dependence on R_s resulting from the age spread of the bubbles. We have attempted a preliminary comparison with the data, hampered by the scarcity of the latter and by the challenge provided by the subtraction of peculiar and thermal motions. Finally we comment on the implications of turbulence for various cosmological studies.
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Baryonic feedback can significantly modify the spatial distribution of matter on small scales and create a bulk relative velocity between the dominant cold dark matter and the hot gas. We study the consequences of such bulk motions using two high resolution hydrodynamic simulations, one with no feedback and one with very strong feedback. We find that relative velocities of order $100 kms$ are produced in the strong feedback simulation whereas it is much smaller when there is no feedback. Such relative motions induce dipole distortions to the gas, which we quantify by computing the dipole correlation function. We find halo coordinates and velocities are systematically changed in the direction of the relative velocity. Finally, we discuss potential to observe the relative velocity via large scale structure, Sunyaev-Zeldovich and line emission measurements. Given the nonlinear nature of this effect, it should next be studied in simulations with different feedback implementations/strengths to determine the available model space.
We assess the possibility to detect the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) in emission and to characterize its physical conditions and spatial distribution through spatially resolved X-ray spectroscopy, in the framework of the recently proposed DIOS, EDGE, Xenia, and ORIGIN missions, all of which are equipped with microcalorimeter-based detectors. For this purpose we analyze a large set of mock emission spectra, extracted from a cosmological hydrodynamical simulation. These mock X-ray spectra are searched for emission features showing both the OVII K alpha triplet and OVIII Ly alpha line, which constitute a typical signature of the warm hot gas. Our analysis shows that 1 Ms long exposures and energy resolution of 2.5 eV will allow us to detect about 400 such features per deg^2 with a significance >5 sigma and reveals that these emission systems are typically associated with density ~100 above the mean. The temperature can be estimated from the line ratio with a precision of ~20%. The combined effect of contamination from other lines, variation in the level of the continuum, and degradation of the energy resolution reduces these estimates. Yet, with an energy resolution of 7 eV and all these effects taken into account, one still expects about 160 detections per deg^2. These line systems are sufficient to trace the spatial distribution of the line-emitting gas, which constitute an additional information, independent from line statistics, to constrain the poorly known cosmic chemical enrichment history and the stellar feedback processes.
The intergalactic medium is expected to clump on scales down to $10^4-10^8$ M$_{odot}$ before the onset of reionization. The impact of these small-scale structures on reionization is poorly understood despite the modern understanding that gas clumpiness limits the growth of H II regions. We use a suite of radiation-hydrodynamics simulations that capture the $sim 10^4$ $M_odot$ Jeans mass of unheated gas to study density fluctuations during reionization. Our simulations track the complex ionization and hydrodynamical response of gas in the wake of ionization fronts. The clumping factor of ionized gas (proportional to the recombination rate) rises to a peak value of $5-20$ approximately $Delta t = 10$ Myr after ionization front passage, depending on the incident intensity, redshift, and degree to which the gas had been pre-heated by the first X-ray sources. The clumping factor reaches its relaxed value of $approx 3$ by $Delta t = 300$ Myr. The mean free path of Lyman-limit photons evolves in unison, being up to several times shorter in un-relaxed, recently reionized regions compared to those that were reionized much earlier. Assessing the impact of this response on the global reionizaton process, we find that un-relaxed gaseous structures boost the total number of recombinations by $approx 50$ % and lead to spatial fluctuations in the mean free path that persist appreciably for several hundred million years after the completion of reionization.
During reionization, the intergalactic medium is heated impulsively by supersonic ionization fronts (I-fronts). The peak gas temperatures behind the I-fronts, $T_mathrm{reion}$, are a key uncertainty in models of the thermal history after reionization. Here we use high-resolution radiative transfer simulations to study the parameter space of $T_mathrm{reion}$. We show that $T_mathrm{reion}$ is only mildly sensitive to the spectrum of incident radiation over most of the parameter space, with temperatures set primarily by I-front speeds. We also explore what current models of reionization predict for $T_mathrm{reion}$ by measuring I-front speeds in cosmological radiative transfer simulations. We find that the post-I-front temperatures evolve toward hotter values as reionization progresses. Temperatures of $T_mathrm{reion} = 17,000-22,000$ K are typical during the first half of reionization, but $T_mathrm{reion} = 25,000 - 30,000$ K may be achieved near the end of this process if I-front speeds reach $sim10^4$ km/s as found in our simulations. Shorter reionization epochs lead to hotter $T_mathrm{reion}$. We discuss implications for $z>5$ Ly$alpha$ forest observations, which potentially include sight lines through hot, recently reionized patches of the Universe. Interpolation tables from our parameter space study are made publicly available, along with a simple fit for the dependence of $T_mathrm{reion}$ on the I-front speed.
A major goal of observational and theoretical cosmology is to observe the largely unexplored time period in the history of our universe when the first galaxies form, and to interpret these measurements. Early galaxies dramatically impacted the gas around them in the surrounding intergalactic medium (IGM) by photoionzing the gas during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). This epoch likely spanned an extended stretch in cosmic time: ionized regions formed and grew around early generations of galaxies, gradually filling a larger and larger fraction of the volume of the universe. At some time -- thus far uncertain, but within the first billion years or so after the big bang -- essentially the entire volume of the universe became filled with ionized gas. The properties of the IGM provide valuable information regarding the formation time and nature of early galaxy populations, and many approaches for studying the first luminous sources are hence based on measurements of the surrounding intergalactic gas. The prospects for improved reionization-era observations of the IGM and early galaxy populations over the next decade are outstanding. Motivated by this, we review the current state of models of the IGM during reionization. We focus on a few key aspects of reionization-era phenomenology and describe: the redshift evolution of the volume-averaged ionization fraction, the properties of the sources and sinks of ionizing photons, along with models describing the spatial variations in the ionization fraction, the ultraviolet radiation field, the temperature of the IGM, and the gas density distribution.
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