Recombination clumping factor during cosmic reionization

Abstract

We discuss the role of recombinations in the intergalactic medium, and the related concept of the clumping factor, during cosmic reionization. The clumping factor is, in general, a local quantity that depends on both the local overdensity and the scale below which the baryon density field can be assumed smooth. That scale, called the filtering scale, depends on over-density and local thermal history. We present a method for building a self-consistent analytical model of inhomogeneous reionization, assuming the linear growth rate of the density fluctuation, which simultaneously accounts for these effects. We show that taking into account the local clumping factor introduces significant corrections to the total recombination rate, compared to the model with a globally uniform clumping factor. © 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..