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American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal, 1(675), p. 8-15, 2008

DOI: 10.1086/525520

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The Topology of Cosmological Reionization

Journal article published in 2008 by Khee‐Gan Lee ORCID, Renyue Cen, J. Richard Gott Iii, Hy Trac
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Postprint: archiving forbidden
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Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Using the largest cosmological reionization simulation to-date (~24 billion particles), we use the genus curve to quantify the topology of neutral hydrogen distribution on scales > 1 Mpc as it evolves during cosmological reionization. We find that the reionization process proceeds primarily in an inside-out fashion, where higher density regions become ionized earlier than lower density regions. There are four distinct topological phases: (1) Pre-reionization at z ~ 15, when the genus curve is consistent with a Gaussian density distribution. (2) Pre-overlap at 10 < z < 15, during which the number of HII bubbles increases gradually with time, until percolation of HII bubbles starts to take effect, characterized by a very flat genus curve at high volume fractions. (3) Overlap at 8 < z < 10, when large HII bubbles rapidly merge, manifested by a precipitous drop in the amplitude of the genus curve. (4) Post-overlap at 6 < z < 8, when HII bubbles have mostly overlapped and the genus curve is consistent with a diminishing number of isolated neutral islands. After the end of reionization (z < 6), the genus of neutral hydrogen is consistent with Gaussian random phase, in agreement with observations.