Detailed modelling of the 21-cm Forest

The 21-cm forest is a promising probe of the Epoch of Reionization. The local state of the intergalactic medium (IGM) is encoded in the spectrum of a background source (radio-loud quasars or gamma ray burst afterglow) by absorption at the local 21-cm wavelength, resulting in a continuous and fluctuating absorption level. Small-scale structures (filaments and minihaloes) in the IGM are responsible for the strongest absorption features. The absorption can also be modulated on large scales by inhomogeneous heating and Wouthuysen-Field coupling. We present the results from a simulation that attempts to preserve the cosmological environment while resolving some of the small-scale structures (a few kpc resolution in a 50 Mpc/h box). The simulation couples the dynamics and the ionizing radiative transfer and includes X-ray and Lyman lines radiative transfer for a detailed physical modelling. As a result we find that soft X-ray self-shielding, Lyman-alpha self-shielding and shock heating all have an impact on the predicted values of the 21-cm optical depth of moderately overdense structures like filaments. An correct treatment of the peculiar velocities is also critical. Modelling these processes seems necessary for accurate predictions and can be done only at high enough resolution. As a result, based on our fiducial model, we estimate that LOFAR should be able to detect a few (strong) absorptions features in a frequency range of a few tens of MHz for a 20 mJy source located at z=10, while the SKA would extract a large fraction of the absorption information for the same source.Comment: 13 pages, accepted for publication in MNRA

The impacts of ultraviolet radiation feedback on galaxies during the epoch of reionization

We explore the impacts of ultraviolet (UV) radiation feedback on galaxies during the epoch of reionisation by cosmological simulations in which hydrodynamics and the transfer of the H and He ionising photons are consistently coupled. Moreover we take into account H_2 non-equilibrium chemistry, including photo-dissociation. The most striking feature of the simulations is a high spatial resolution for the radiative transfer (RT) calculation which enables us to start considering not only external UV feedback processes but also internal UV feedback processes in each galaxy. We find that the star formation is significantly suppressed due to the internal UV and supernova (SN) feedback. In low mass galaxies with M<10^9Msun, a large amount of gas is evacuated by photo-evaporation as previous studies have shown, which results in the suppression of star formation. Surprisingly, star formation in massive halos is also strongly suppressed despite the fact that these halos hardly lose any gas by photo-evaporation. The suppression of star formation in massive halos is mainly caused by following two factors; (i) small scale clumpy structures in the galaxies are smoothened by the internal feedback, (ii) although the dense gas in the galaxies is mostly neutral, the H_2 formation and cooling processes are disturbed by mild photo-heating. Photo-dissociating radiations actually suppress star formation, but the magnitude of the effect is not so large in massive galaxies. Even though our simulation volume is too small to be a representative patch of the Universe during reionisation, we find that our simulated star formation rate densities and HI fractions at z=6-7 are consistent with those found in observations.Comment: 14 pages, 13 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in MNRA

Lyman-alpha radiative transfer during the Epoch of Reionization: contribution to 21-cm signal fluctuations

During the epoch of reionization, Ly-alpha photons emitted by the first stars can couple the neutral hydrogen spin temperature to the kinetic gas temperature, providing the opportunity to observe the gas in emission or absorption in the 21-cm line. Given the bright foregrounds, it is of prime importance to determine precisely the fluctuations signature of the signal, to be able to extract it by its correlation power. LICORICE is a Monte-Carlo radiative transfer code, coupled to the dynamics via an adaptative Tree-SPH code. We present here the Ly-alpha part of the implementation, and validate it through three classical tests. Contrary to previous works, we do not assume that P_alpha, the number of scatterings of Ly-alpha photons per atom per second, is proportional to the Ly-alpha background flux, but take into account the scatterings in the Ly-alpha line wings. The latter have the effect to steepen the radial profile of P_alpha around each source, and re-inforce the contrast of the fluctuations. In the particular geometry of cosmic filaments of baryonic matter, Ly-alpha photons are scattered out of the filament, and the large scale structure of P_alpha is significantly anisotropic. This could have strong implications for the possible detection of the 21-cm signal.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures. To be published in A&

Galaxy formation hydrodynamics: From cosmic flows to star-forming clouds

Major progress has been made over the last few years in understanding hydrodynamical processes on cosmological scales, in particular how galaxies get their baryons. There is increasing recognition that a large part of the baryons accrete smoothly onto galaxies, and that internal evolution processes play a major role in shaping galaxies - mergers are not necessarily the dominant process. However, predictions from the various assembly mechanisms are still in large disagreement with the observed properties of galaxies in the nearby Universe. Small-scale processes have a major impact on the global evolution of galaxies over a Hubble time and the usual sub-grid models account for them in a far too uncertain way. Understanding when, where and at which rate galaxies formed their stars becomes crucial to understand the formation of galaxy populations. I discuss recent improvements and current limitations in "resolved" modelling of star formation, aiming at explicitely capturing star-forming instabilities, in cosmological and galaxy-sized simulations. Such models need to develop three-dimensional turbulence in the ISM, which requires parsec-scale resolution at redshift zero.Comment: To appear in the proceedings for IAU Symposium 270: Computational Star Formation (eds. Alves, Elmegreen, Girart, Trimble

Formation and Radiative Feedback of First Objects and First Galaxies

First, the formation of first objects driven by dark matter is revisited by high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations. It is revealed that dark matter haloes of ~10^4M_sun can produce first luminous objects with the aid of dark matter cusps. Therefore, the mass of first objects is smaller by roughly two orders of magnitude than in the previous prediction. This implies that the number of Pop III stars formed in the early universe could be significantly larger than hitherto thought. Secondly, the feedback by photo-ionization and photo-dissociation photons in the first objects is explored with radiation hydrodynamic simulations, and it is demonstrated that multiple stars can form in a 10^5M_sun halo. Thirdly, the fragmentation of an accretion disk around a primordial protostar is explored with photo-dissociation feedback. As a result, it is found that the photo-dissociation can reduce the mass accretion rate onto protostars. Also, protostars as small as 0.8M_sun may be ejected and evolve with keeping their mass, which might be detected as "real first stars" in the Galactic halo. Finally, state-of-the-art radiation hydrodynamic simulations are performed to investigate the internal ionization of first galaxies and the escape of ionizing photons. We find that UV feedback by forming massive stars enhances the escape fraction even in a halo as massive as > 6* 10^9M_sun, while it reduces the star formation rate significantly. This may have a momentous impact on the cosmic reionization.Comment: 26 pages, 14 figure

Star formation efficiency in galaxy interactions and mergers: a statistical study

We investigate the enhancement of star formation efficiency in galaxy interactions and mergers, by numerical simulations of several hundred galaxy collisions. All morphological types along the Hubble sequence are considered in the initial conditions of the two colliding galaxies, with varying bulge-to-disk ratios and gas mass fractions. Different types of orbits are simulated, direct and retrograde, according to the initial relative energy and impact parameter, and the resulting star formation history is compared to that occuring in the two galaxies when they are isolated. Our principal results are: (1) retrograde encounters have a larger star formation efficiency (SFE) than direct encounters; (2) the amount of gas available in the galaxy is not the main parameter governing the SFE in the burst phase; (3) there is an anticorrelation between the amplitude of the star forming burst and the tidal forces exerted per unit of time, which is due to the large amount of gas dragged outside the galaxy by tidal tails in strong interactions; (4) globally, the Kennicutt-Schmidt law is retrieved statistically for isolated galaxies, interacting pairs and mergers; (5) the enhanced star formation is essentially occurring in nuclear starbursts, triggered by inward gas flows driven by non-axisymmetries in the galaxy disks. Direct encounters develop more pronounced asymmetries than retrograde ones. Based on these statistical results, we derive general laws for the enhancement of star formation in galaxy interactions and mergers, as a function of the main parameters of the encounter.Comment: 22 pages, 37 figures, 4 tables. Accepted on Astronomy & Astrophysic

Formation and Evolution of Galactic Disks with a Multiphase Numerical Model

The formation and evolution of galactic disks are complex phenomena, where gas and star dynamics are coupled through star formation and the related feedback. The physical processes are so numerous and intricate that numerical models focus, in general, on one or a few of them only. We propose here a numerical model with particular attention to the multiphase nature of the interstellar medium; we consider a warm gas phase (> 10^4 K), treated as a continuous fluid by an SPH algorithm, and a cold gas phase (down to 10K), fragmented in clouds, treated by a low-dissipation sticky particles component. The two gas phases do not have the same dynamics, nor the same spatial distribution. In addition to gravity, they are coupled through mass exchanges due to heating/cooling processes, and supernovae feedback. Stars form out of the cold phase, and re-inject mass to the warm phase through SN explosions and stellar winds. The baryons are embedded in a live cold dark matter component. Baryonic disks, initially composed of pure gas, encounter violent instabilities, and a rapid phase of star formation, that slows down exponentially. Stars form in big clumps, that accumulate in the center to build a bulge. Exponential metallicity gradients are obtained. External infall of gas should be included to maintain a star formation rate in the disk comparable to what is observed in present disk galaxies