Testing the effect of galactic feedback on the IGM at z ∼ 6 with metal-line absorbers
Abstract
We present models of low- and high-ionization metal-line absorbers (O I, C II, C IV and Mg II) during the end of the reionization epoch, at z ∼ 6. Using four cosmological hydrodynamical simulations with different feedback schemes (including the Illustris and Sherwood simulations) and two different choices of hydro-solver, we investigate how the overall incidence rate and equivalent width distribution of metal-line absorbers varies with the galactic wind prescription. We find that the O I and C II absorbers are reasonably insensitive to the feedback scheme. All models, however, struggle to reproduce the observations of C IV and Mg II, which are probing down to lower overdensities than O I and C II at z ∼ 6, suggesting that the metals in the simulations are not being transported out into the intergalactic medium efficiently enough. The situation is improved but not resolved if we choose a harder (but still reasonable) and/or (locally) increased UV background at z ∼ 6.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- September 2016
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/stw1306
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1603.03332
- Bibcode:
- 2016MNRAS.461..606K
- Keywords:
-
- methods: numerical;
- galaxies: high-redshift;
- intergalactic medium;
- quasars: absorption lines;
- dark ages;
- reionization;
- first stars;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies;
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in MNRAS following peer review. 24 pages, 21 figures and 5 tables