No Arabic abstract
We discuss the evolution of the ratio in number of recombinations due to 2s two photon escape and due to the escape of Lyman-$alpha$ photons from the resonance during the epoch of cosmological recombination, within the width of the last scattering surface and near its boundaries. We discuss how this ratio evolves in time, and how it defines the profile of the Lyman-$alpha$ line in the spectrum of CMB. One of the key reasons for explaining its time dependence is the strong overpopulation of the 2p level relative to the 2s level at redshifts $z la 750$.
The advent of precise measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropies has motivated correspondingly precise calculations of the cosmic recombination history. Cosmic recombination proceeds far out of equilibrium because of a bottleneck at the $n=2$ level of hydrogen: atoms can only reach the ground state via slow processes: two-photon decay or Lyman-$alpha$ resonance escape. However, even a small primordial abundance of molecules could have a large effect on the interline opacity in the recombination epoch and lead to an additional route for hydrogen recombination. Therefore, this paper computes the abundance of the H$_2$ molecule during the cosmic recombination epoch. Hydrogen molecules in the ground electronic levels X$^1Sigma^+_g$ can either form from the excited H$_2$ electronic levels B$^1Sigma^+_u$ and C$^1Pi_u$ or through the charged particles H$_2^+$, HeH$^+$ and H$^-$. We follow the transitions among all of these species, resolving the rotational and vibrational sub-levels. Since the energies of the X$^1Sigma^+_g$--B$^1Sigma^+_u$ (Lyman band) and X$^1Sigma^+_g$-C$^1Pi_u$ (Werner band) transitions are near the Lyman-$alpha$ energy, the distortion of the CMB spectrum caused by escaped H Lyman-line photons accelerates both the formation and the destruction of H$_2$ due to this channel relative to the thermal rates. This causes the populations of H$_2$ molecules in X$^1Sigma^+_g$ energy levels to deviate from their thermal equilibrium abundances. We find that the resulting H$_2$ abundance is $10^{-17}$ at $z=1200$ and $10^{-13}$ at $z=800$, which is too small to have any significant influence on the recombination history.
The epoch of reionization (6 < z < 10) marks the period in our universe when the first large galaxies grew to fruition, and began to affect the universe around them. Massive stars, and potentially accreting supermassive black holes, filled the universe with ionizing radiation, burning off the haze of neutral gas that had filled the intergalactic medium (IGM) since recombination (z~1000). The evolution of this process constrains key properties of these earliest luminous sources, thus observationally constraining reionization is a key science goal for the next decade. The measurement of Lyman-alpha emission from photometrically-identified galaxies is a highly constraining probe of reionization, as a neutral IGM will resonantly scatter these photons, reducing detectability. While significant work has been done with 8-10m telescopes, these observations require extremely large telescopes (ELTs); the flux limits available from todays 10m class telescopes are sufficient for only the brightest known galaxies (m < 26). Ultra-deep surveys with the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) and Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) will be capable of detecting Lyman-alpha emission from galaxies 2-3 magnitudes fainter than todays deepest surveys. Wide-field fiber spectroscopy on the GMT combined with narrow-field AO-assisted slit spectroscopy on the TMT will be able to probe the expected size of ionized bubbles throughout the epoch of reionization, following up degree scale deep imaging surveys with the Wide Field Infrared Space Telescope. These data will provide the first resolved Lyman-alpha-based maps of the ionized intergalactic medium throughout the epoch of reionization, constraining models of both the temporal and spatial evolution of this phase change.
We study the far-infrared properties of 498 Lyman Alpha Emitters (LAEs) at z=2.8, 3.1 and 4.5 in the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South, using 250, 350 and 500 micron data from the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey (HerMES) and 870 micron data from the LABOCA ECDFS Submillimeter Survey (LESS). None of the 126, 280 or 92 LAEs at z=2.8, 3.1 and 4.5, respectively, are individually detected in the far-infrared data. We use stacking to probe the average emission to deeper flux limits, reaching $1sigma$ depths of ~0.1 to 0.4 mJy. The LAEs are also undetected at $ge3sigma$ in the stacks, although a $2.5sigma$ signal is observed at 870 micron for the z=2.8 sources. We consider a wide range of far-infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs), including a M82 and an Sd galaxy template, to determine upper limits on the far-infrared luminosities and far-infrared-derived star-formation rates of the LAEs. These star-formation rates are then combined with those inferred from the Ly$alpha$ and UV emission to determine lower limits on the LAEs Ly$alpha$ escape fraction ($f_{rm esc}($Ly$alpha$)). For the Sd SED template, the inferred LAEs $f_{rm esc}($Ly$alpha$) are $gtrsim30%$ ($1sigma$) at z=2.8, 3.1 and 4.5, which are all significantly higher than the global $f_{rm esc}($Ly$alpha$) at these redshifts. Thus, if the LAEs $f_{rm esc}($Ly$alpha$) follows the global evolution then they have warmer far-infrared SEDs than the Sd galaxy template. The average and M82 SEDs produce lower limits on the LAE $f_{rm esc}($Ly$alpha$) of ~10 to 20% ($1sigma$), all of which are slightly higher than the global evolution of $f_{rm esc}($Ly$alpha$) but consistent with it at the 2 to 3$sigma$ level.
We investigate the effect of the Biermann battery during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) using cosmological Adaptive Mesh Refinement simulations within the framework of the SPHINX project. We develop a novel numerical technique to solve for the Biermann battery term in the Constrained Transport method, preserving both the zero divergence of the magnetic field and the absence of Biermann battery for isothermal flows. The structure-preserving nature of our numerical method turns out to be very important to minimise numerical errors during validation tests of the propagation of a Stromgren sphere and of a Sedov blast wave. We then use this new method to model the evolution of a 2.5 and 5 co-moving Mpc cosmological box with a state-of-the-art galaxy formation model within the RAMSES code. Contrary to previous findings, we show that three different Biermann battery channels emerge: the first one is associated with linear perturbations before the EoR, the second one is the classical Biermann battery associated with reionization fronts during the EoR, and the third one is associated with strong, supernova-driven outflows. While the two former channels generate spontaneously volume-filling magnetic fields with a strength on the order or below $10^{-20}$ G, the latter, owing to the higher plasma temperature and a marginally-resolved turbulent dynamo, reaches a field strength as high as $10^{-18}$ G in the intergalactic medium around massive haloes.
Detection of the redshifted 21cm-line signal from neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium (IGM) during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) is complicated by intense foregrounds such as galactic synchrotron and extragalactic radio galaxies. The 21cm-Lyman-$alpha$ emitter(LAE) cross-correlation is one of the tools available to reduce the foreground effects because the foreground emission from such radio sources is statistically independent of LAE distribution. LAE surveys during the EoR at redshifts $z=6.6$ and $7.3$ are ongoing by the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC). Additionally, Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) will provide precise redshift information of the LAEs discovered by the HSC survey. In this paper, we investigate the detectability of the 21cm signal with the 21cm-LAE cross-correlation by using our improved reionization simulations. We also focus on the error budget and evaluate it quantitatively in order to consider a strategy to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. In addition, we explore an expansion of the LAE survey to suggest optimal survey parameters and show a potential to measure a characteristic size of ionized bubbles via the turnover scale of the cross-power spectrum. As a result, we find that the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) has ability to detect the cross-power spectrum signal on large scales by combining LAE Deep field survey of HSC. We also show that the sensitivity is improved dramatically at small scales by adding redshift information from the PFS measurements. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) has a potential to measure the turnover scale with an accuracy of $6times10^{-3}~{rm Mpc^{-1}}$.