Photon Consumption in Minihalos during Cosmological Reionization

摘要: At the earliest epochs of structure formation in cold dark matter (CDM) cosmologies, smallest nonlinear objects are numerous small halos that condense with virial temperatures below ~104 K. Such "minihalos" not yet resolved large-scale three-dimensional cosmological simulations. Here we employ a semianalytic method, combined simulations individual minihalos, to examine their importance during reionization. We show that, depending on when reionization takes place, they potentially play an important role as sinks ionizing radiation. If occurs at sufficiently high redshifts (zr 20), intergalactic medium is heated K and most minihalos never form. On other hand, if zr 20, significant fraction (10%) all baryons have already collapsed into subsequently removed from by photoevaporation background flux builds up. this process can require budget photons, exceeding production straightforward extrapolations back time known quasar galaxy populations factor up ~10 ~3, respectively.