Constraining the reionization and thermal history of the Universe using a semi-numerical photon-conserving code SCRIPT

Abstract

Given that the reionization history of cosmic hydrogen is yet to be stringently constrained, it is worth checking the prospects of doing so using physically motivated models and available observational data. For this purpose, we use an extended version of the explicitly photon-conserving semi-numerical model of reionization, $\text{SCRIPT}$, which also includes thermal evolution of the intergalactic medium (IGM). The model incorporates the effects of inhomogeneous recombination and radiative feedback self-consistently and is characterized by five free parameters (two for the redshift-dependent ionization efficiency, two for the ionizing escape fraction, and another for reionization temperature increment). We constrain these free parameters by simultaneously matching with various observational probes, e.g., estimates of the ionized hydrogen fraction, the CMB scattering optical depth and the galaxy UV luminosity function. In addition, we include the low-density IGM temperature measurements obtained from Lyman-$\alpha$ absorption spectra at $z\sim 5.5$, a probe not commonly used for Bayesian analysis of reionization parameters. We find that the interplay of the various data sets, particularly inclusion of the temperature data, leads to tightening of the parameter constraints. Our default models prefer a late end of reionization (at $z\lesssim 6$), in agreement with other recent studies. We can also derive constraints on the duration of reionization, $\Delta z=1.81_{-0.67}^{+0.51}$ and the midpoint of reionization, $z_{\mathrm{mid}}=7.0_{-0.40}^{+0.30}$. The constraints can be further tightened by including other available and upcoming data sets.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (15)

• Elevated UV luminosity density at Cosmic Dawn explained by non-evolving, weakly mass-dependent star formation efficiency
• 21cmEMU: an emulator of 21cmFAST summary observables
• A Short Introduction to Reionization Physics
• Modelling the star-formation activity and ionizing properties of high-redshift galaxies
• On the general nature of 21cm-Lyman-$\alpha$ emitters cross-correlations during reionisation
• Efficient exploration of reionization parameters for the upcoming 21 cm observations using a photon conserving semi-numerical model SCRIPT
• Non-parametric Reconstruction of Photon Escape Fraction from Reionization
• A fast method of reionization parameter space exploration using GPR trained SCRIPT
• Deciphering Faint Gyrosynchrotron Emission from Coronal Mass Ejection using Spectro-polarimetric Radio Imaging
• Spectropolarimetric Radio Imaging of Faint Gyrosynchrotron Emission from a CME : A Possible Indication of the Insufficiency of Homogeneous Models
• Prospects of FRBs and Large Scale 21 cm Power Spectra in Constraining the Epoch of Reionization
• Simulating the epoch of Helium Reionization in photon-conserving semi-numerical code SCRIPT
• Fisher matrix forecasts on the astrophysics of galaxies during the epoch of reionisation from the 21-cm power spectra
• Efficient Modelling of Lyman-α opacity fluctuations during late reionization epoch
• Accelerating reionization constraints: An ANN-emulator framework for the SCRIPT Semi-numerical Model