Cosmic Reionization On Computers: Reionization Histories of Present-day Galaxies

Abstract

We examine the reionization history of present-day galaxies by explicitly tracing the building blocks of halos from the Cosmic Reionization On Computers project. We track dark matter particles that belong to z  = 0 halos and extract the neutral fractions at corresponding positions during rapid global reionization. The resulting particle reionization histories allow us to explore different definitions of a halo’s reionization redshift and to account for the neutral content of the interstellar medium. Consistent with previous work, we find a systematic trend of reionization redshift with mass—present day halos with higher masses have earlier reionization times. Finally, we quantify the spread of reionization times within each halo, which also has a mass dependence.