Recombination Clumping Factor of Physically Defined Intergalactic Medium at the Epoch of Reionization

Abstract

The recombination clumping factor, $C$, is a key parameter in modeling cosmic reionization, but its value is sensitive to the definition of the Intergalactic Medium (IGM). We investigate the clumping factor using the \textsc{Gamer-2} adaptive mesh refinement cosmological hydrodynamical simulation code. We introduce a new, physically-motivated definition of the IGM based on the effective transmission factor of ionizing photons. We perform large-scale simulations with varying intensities of the uniform ultraviolet background, and we find that our physically-defined clumping factor is slightly lower than, yet comparable to, the values derived from traditional overdensity thresholds, within a factor of two. At $z=6$, we obtain a clumping factor of $C\sim 3$, consistent with previous studies, indicting that the clumping factor is robust to numerical resolution, box size, and the definition of the IGM. Our zoom-in simulations further show that supernova feedback has two competing effects on reionization; it enhances recombination by increasing the density of ionized gas, while facilitating ionization by heating gas and reducing the neutral fraction. However, these effects are limited to the scales of $\sim$ 100 kpc and do not significantly alter the global clumping factor.

arXiv comment11 pages, 7 figures, ApJ, in press; matched to the accepted version