SCORCH I: The Galaxy-Halo Connection in the First Billion Years

Understand

SCORCH (Simulations and Constructions of the Reionization of Cosmic Hydrogen) is a new project to study the Epoch of Reionization (EoR).

• In this first paper, we probe the connection between observed high-redshift galaxies and simulated dark matter halos to better understand the abundance and evolution of the primary source of ionizing radiation.
• High-resolution N-body simulations are run to quantify the abundance of dark matter halos as a function of mass $M$, accretion rate $\dot{M}$, and redshift $z$.
• A new fit for the halo mass function $dn/dM$ is $\approx 20\%$ more accurate at the high-mass end where bright galaxies are expected to reside.