The Large-Scale Observational Signatures of Low-Mass Galaxies During Reionization

Understand

Observations of the epoch of reionization give us clues about the nature and evolution of the sources of ionizing photons, or early stars and galaxies.

• We present a new suite of structure formation and radiative transfer simulations from the PRACE4LOFAR project designed to investigate whether the mechanism of radiative feedback, or the suppression of star formation in ionized regions from UV radiation, can be inferred from these observations.
• Our source halo mass extends down to $10^8 M_\odot$, with sources in the mass range $10^8$ to $10^9 M_\odot$ expected to be particularly susceptible to feedback from ionizing radiation, and we vary the aggressiveness and nature of this suppression.
• Not only do we have four distinct source models, we also include two box sizes (67 Mpc and 349 Mpc), each with two grid resolutions.