The reionization of He II and the temperature evolution of the intergalactic medium

A number of observations suggest that He II in the intergalactic medium （IGM） was fully ionized at z-3, probably by quasi-stellar objects （QSOs）. Here we construct a simple model of a QSO to study the reionization of He II and the corre- sponding thermal evolution of the IGM. We assume that QSOs are triggered by major mergers of dark matter halos, and the luminosity evolution of individual QSOs is de- scribed by an initial accretion stage with a constant Eddington ratio and then a power- law decay driven by long term disk evolution or fueling. Once a QSO is triggered, it immediately ionizes its surrounding area as an ionized bubble. The resulting changes in size and volume of the bubble are determined by the luminosity evolution of the central QSO. With the emergence of more and more bubbles, they eventually over- lap each other and finally permeate the whole universe. During the He II reionization, the IGM temperature increases due to the photoheating by the ionization processes. Applying the bubble model and considering various heating and cooling mechanisms, we trace the thermal evolution of the IGM and obtain the average IGM temperature as a function of redshift, which is very consistent with observations. The increase in IGM temperature due to the reionization of He II may be determined more accurately in the future, which may put robust constraints on the QSO model and the physics of He II reionization.

Part III: Explaining the “Extra” Heat of Intergalactic Hydrogen Clouds with Probabilistic Spacetime

Recent observations have consistently shown a greater degree of heat in intergalactic hydrogen clouds when redshift z < 2 than what well-designed simulations have indicated. The reason for this “extra” energy has not been established, with the latest hypothesis being the effect of a certain type of dark matter. This paper presents a contrasting straightforward non-dark explanation for the extra energy based on the Probabilistic Spacetime Theory (PST). Both the dark matter and PST models are shown to involve the creation of new photons to explain the thermal enigma, but with very different underlying mechanisms. As this is the third paper in a three-part series of articles on the utility of that theory, a discussion is offered at the end of this paper concerning what the collective set of three articles has shown. Despite dark entities being hypothesized as a cause of all three reviewed research findings, dark entities are not needed to explicate the excess energy documented in each paper. Instead, the PST offers explanations for the reviewed research findings based solely on its five tenets and no dark entities. When viewed from an even larger context of other studies’ unexpected results, the PST was found to be a comprehensive yet parsimonious cosmological theory worthy of further testing.

Reionizing Islands with Inhomogeneous Recombinations

Observations are beginning to constrain the history of the epoch of reionization(EoR).Modeling the reionization process is indispensable to interpret the observations,to infer the properties of ionizing sources,and to probe the various astrophysical processes from the observational data.Here we present an improved version of the seminumerical simulation islandFAST,by incorporating inhomogeneous recombinations and a corresponding inhomogeneous ionizing background,and simulate the reionization process of neutral islands during the late EoR.We find that the islands are more fragmented in models with inhomogeneous recombinations than the case with a homogeneous recombination number.In order to investigate the effects of basic assumptions in the reionization modeling,we compare the results from islandFAST with those from 21cmFAST for the same assumptions on the ionizing photon sources and sinks,to find how the morphology of the ionization field and the reionization history depend on the different treatments of these two models.Such systematic bias should be noted when interpreting the upcoming observations.

Mock X-Ray Observations of Hot Gas with L-Galaxies Semi-analytic Models of Galaxy Formation

We create mock X-ray observations of hot gas in galaxy clusters with a new extension of the L-Galaxies semianalytic model of galaxy formation,which includes the radial distribution of hot gas in each halo.Based on the model outputs,we first build some mock light cones,then generate mock spectra with the SOXS package and derive the mock images in the light cones.Using the mock data,we simulate mock X-ray spectra for the ROSAT all-sky survey,and compare the mock spectra with the observational results.Then,we consider the design parameters of the HUBS mission and simulate the observation of the halo hot gas for HUBS as an important application of our mock work.We find:(1)our mock data match the observations by current X-ray telescopes.(2)The survey of hot baryons in resolved clusters by HUBS is effective below redshift 0.5,and the observations of the emission lines in point-like sources at z>0.5 by HUBS help us understand the hot baryons in the early universe.(3)By taking advantage of the large simulation box and flexibility in semi-analytic models,our mock X-ray observations provide the opportunity to select targets and observation strategies for forthcoming X-ray facilities.

Intensity distribution function and statistical properties of fast radio bursts

Fast Radio Bursts （FRBs） are intense radio flashes from the sky that are characterized by mil- lisecond durations and Jansky-level flux densities. We carried out a statistical analysis on FRBs that have been discovered. Their mean dispersion measure, after subtracting the contribution from the interstellar medium of our Galaxy, is found to be ~ 660 pc cm-3, supporting their being from a cosmological origin. Their energy released in the radio band spans about two orders of magnitude, with a mean value of ~ 10-39 erg. More interestingly, although the study of FRBs is still in a very early phase, the published collection of FRBs enables us to derive a useful intensity distribution function. For the 16 non-repeating FRBs detected by the Parkes telescope and the Green Bank Telescope, the intensity distribution can be described as dN/dFobs = （4.1± 1.3） × 103 F-obs1.1±0.2 sky-1 d-l, where Fobs is the observed radio obs fluence in units of Jy ms. Here the power-law index is significantly flatter than the expected value of 2.5 for standard candles distributed homogeneously in a flat Euclidean space. Based on this intensity distribution function, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope （FAST） is predicted to be able to detect about five FRBs for every 1000 h of observation time.

Alternative kind of hydrogen atoms as a possible explanation for the latest puzzling observation of the 21 cm radio line from the early Universe

There is a puzzling astrophysical result concerning the latest observation of the absorption profile of the redshifted radio line 21 cm from the early Universe(as described in Bowman et al.). The amplitude of the profile was more than a factor of two greater than the largest predictions. This could mean that the primordial hydrogen gas was much cooler than expected. Some explanations in the literature suggested a possible cooling of baryons either by unspecified dark matter particles or by some exotic dark matter particles with a charge a million times smaller than the electron charge. Other explanations required an additional radio background. In the present paper, we entertain a possible different explanation for the above puzzling observational result: the explanation is based on the alternative kind of hydrogen atoms(AKHA),whose existence was previously demonstrated theoretically, as well as by the analysis of atomic experiments. Namely, the AKHA are expected to decouple from the cosmic microwave background(CMB) much earlier(in the course of the Universe expansion) than usual hydrogen atoms, so that the AKHA temperature is significantly lower than that of usual hydrogen atoms. This seems to lower the excitation(spin) temperature of the hyperfine doublet(responsible for the 21 cm line) sufficiently enough for explaining the above puzzling observational result. This possible explanation appears to be more specific and natural than the previous possible explanations. Further observational studies of the redshifted 21 cm radio line from the early Universe could help to verify which explanation is the most relevant.

Combined limit on the photon mass with nine localized fast radio bursts

A nonzero-mass hypothesis for the photon can produce a frequency-dependent dispersion of light, which results in arrival-time differences of photons with different frequencies originating from a given transient source. Extragalactic fast radio bursts(FRBs), with their low frequency emissions, short time durations, and long propagation distances, are excellent astrophysical probes to constrain the rest mass of the photon mγ. However, the derivation of a limit on mγis complicated by the similar frequency dependences of dispersion expected from the plasma and nonzero photon mass effects. If a handful measurements of redshift for FRBs are available, then the different redshift dependences of the plasma and photon mass contributions to the dispersion measure(DM) might be able to break dispersion degeneracy in testing the photon mass. For now, nine FRBs with redshift measurements have been reported, which can turn this idea into reality. Taking into account the DM contributions from both the plasma and a possible photon mass,we use the data on the nine FRBs to derive a combined limit of mγ≤ 7.1 × 10^-51 kg, or equivalently mγ≤ 4.0 × 10^-15 e V/c2 at 68% confidence level, which is essentially as good as or represents a factor of 7 improvement over previous limits obtained by the single FRBs. Additionally, a reasonable estimation for the DM contribution from the host galaxy, DMhost, can be simultaneously achieved in our analysis. The rapid progress in localizing FRBs will further tighten the constraints on both mγ and DMhost.

A Deprojection Analysis of Abell 1650 with XMM-Newton

We revisit the XMM-Newton observation of the galaxy cluster Abell 1650 with a deprojection technique. We find that the radial deprojected spectra of Abell 1650 can be marginally fitted by a single-temperature model. In order to study the properties of the central gas, we fit the spectra of the central two regions with a two- temperature model. The fits then become significantly better and the cool gas about 1～2 keV can be connected with the gas cooling. Fitting the central spectrum （r≤1′） by using a cooling flow model with an isothermal component yields a small mass deposition rate of 10-7^＋11 M. yr^-1, while the standard cooling flow model can not fit this spectrum satisfactorily except that there exists a cut-off temperature having a level of about 3 keV. From the isothermal model we derive the deprojected electron density profile ne（r）, and then together with the deprojected temperature profile the total mass and gas mass fraction of cluster are also determined. We compare the properties of Abell 1650 with those of Abell 1835 （a large cooling flow cluster） and some other clusters, to explore the difference in properties between large and small cooling flow cluster, and what causes the difference in the cooling flow of different clusters. It has been shown that Abell 1835 has a steeper potential well and thus a higher electron density and a lower temperature in its center, indicating that the shape of the gravitational potential well in central region determines the cooling flow rates of clusters. We calculate the potential, internal and radiated energies of these two clusters, and find that the gas energies in both clusters are conserved during the collapsing stage.

Central gas entropy excess as direct evidence for AGN feedback in galaxy groups and clusters

By analyzing Chandra X-ray data of a sample of 21 galaxy groups and 19 galaxy clusters, we find that in 31 sample systems there exists a significant central （R ≤ 10 h^-171 kpc） gas entropy excess （AK0）, which corresponds to = 0.1 - 0.5 keV per gas particle, beyond the power-law model that best fits the radial entropy profile of the outer regions. We also find a distinct correlation between the central entropy excess △K0 and K-band luminosity LK of the central dominating galaxies （CDGs）, which is scaled as △K0 ∝ L K 1.6±04, where LK is tightly associated with the mass of the supermassive black hole hosted in the CDG. In fact, if an effective mass-to-energy conversionefficiency of 0.02 is assumed for the accretion process, the cumulative AGN feedback E AGN feedack=ηMBHc2 yields an extra heating of = 0.5 - 17.0keV per particle, which feedback is sufficient to explain the central entropy excess. In most cases, the AGN contribution can compensate the radiative loss of the X-ray gas within the cooling radius （= 0.002 - 2.2 keV per particle）, and apparently exceeds the energy required to cause the scaling relations to deviate from the self-similar predictions （=0.2 - 1.0 keV per particle）. In contrast to the AGN feedback, the extra heating provided by supernova explosions accounts for = 0.01 - 0.08 keV per particle in groups and is almost negligible in clusters. Therefore, the observed correlation between △K0 and Lx can be considered as direct evidence for AGN feedback in galaxy groups and clusters.

Ionization state of cosmic hydrogen by early stars and quasars

Cosmic hydrogen is reionized and maintained in its highly ionized state by the ultraviolet emission attributed to an early generation of stars and quasars. The Lyα opacity observed in absorption spectra of high-redshift quasars permits more stringent constraints on the ionization state of cosmic hydrogen. Based on density perturbation and structure formation theory, we develop an analytic model to trace the evolution of the ionization state in the post-overlap epoch of reionization, in which the bias factor is taken into account. For quasars, we represent an improved luminosity function by utilizing a hybrid approach for the halo formation rate that is in reasonable agreement with the published measurements at 2 ≤ z ≤ 6. Comparison with the classic Press-Schechter mass function of dark matter halos, we demonstrate that the biased mass distribution indeed enhances star formation efficiency in the overdense environment by more than 25 per cent following the overlap of ionized bubbles. In addition, an alternative way is introduced to derive robust estimates of the mean free path for ionizing photons. In our model, star-forming galaxies are likely to dominate the ionizing background radiation beyond z = 3, and quasars contribute equally above a redshift of z ～ 2.5. From 5 ≤ z ≤ 6, the lack of evolution in photoionization rate can thus be explained by the relatively flat evolution in star formation efficiency, although the mean free path of ionizing photons increases rapidly. Moreover, in the redshift interval z ～ 2 - 6, the expected mean free path and Gunn-Peterson optical depth obviously evolve by a factor of ～ 500 and ～50 respectively. We find that the relative values of critical overdensities for hydrogen ionization and collapse could be 430% at z ≈2 and 2% at z ≈6, suggesting a rapid overlap process in the overdense regions around instant quasars following reionization. We further illustrate that the absolute estimates of the fraction of neutral hydrogen computed from theoretical models may not be important because of comparable uncertainties in the computation.

Gamma-ray bursts and their links with supernovae and cosmology

Gamma-ray bursts are the most luminous explosions in the Universe, whose origin and mechanism are the focus of intense interest. They appear connected to su- pernova remnants from massive stars or the merger of their remnants, and their bright- ness makes them temporarily detectable out to the largest distances yet explored in the universe. After pioneering breakthroughs from space and ground experiments, their study is entering a new phase with observations from the recently launched Fermi satellite, as well as the prospect of detections or limits from large neutrino and gravitational wave detectors. The interplay between such observations and theoretical models of gamma-ray bursts is reviewed, and cosmology. as well as their connections to supernovae

A Chandra study of the massive, distant galaxy cluster SDSS J0150–1005

We present a study of a fossil cluster,SDSS J0150–1005（z 0.364）,with high spatial resolution based on the imaging spectroscopic analysis of Chandra observations.The Chandra X-ray image shows a relaxed and symmetric morphology,which indicates that SDSS J0150–1005 is a well-developed galaxy cluster with no sign of a recent merger.According to the isothermal model,its global gas temperature is 5.73±0.80 keV,and the virial mass is 6.23±1.34×1014M⊙.Compared with the polytropic temperature model,the mass calculated based on the isothermal model is overestimated by 49%±11.The central gas entropy,S0.1 r200=143.9±18.3 keV cm2,is significantly lower than the average value of normal galaxy clusters with similar temperatures.Our results indicate that SDSS J0150–1005 formed during an early epoch.

Metal enrichment via ram pressure stripping in the IGM of the compact galaxy group RGH 80

By creating and analyzing two dimensional gas temperature and abundance maps of the RGH 80 compact galaxy group with high-quality Chandra data,we detect a high-abundance （ 0.7 Z⊙） arc,where the metal abundance is significantly higher than the surrounding regions by 0.3Z⊙.This structure shows tight spatial correlations with the member galaxy PGC 046529,as well as with the arm-like feature identified on the X-ray image in the previous work of Randall et al.（2009）.Since no apparent signature of AGN activity is found to be associated with PGC 046529 in multi-band observations,and the gas temperature,metallicity,and mass of the high-abundance arc resemble those of the ISM of typical early-type galaxies,we conclude that this high-abundance structure is the remnant of the ISM of PGC 046529,which was stripped out of the galaxy by ram pressure stripping due to the motion of PGC 046529 in RGH 80.This novel case shows that ram pressure stripping can work as efficiently in the metal enrichment process in galaxy groups as it can in galaxy clusters.

Chandra Studies of the X-ray gas properties of fossil systems

We study ten galaxy groups and clusters suggested in the literature to be ＂fossil systems（FSs）＂based on Chandra observations. According to the M（500）- T and LX- T relations, the gas properties of FSs are not physically distinct from ordinary galaxy groups or clusters. We also first study the f（gas, 2500）- T relation and find that the FSs exhibit the same trend as ordinary systems. The gas densities of FSs within 0.1r200 are - 10^-3cm^-3, which is the same order of magnitude as galaxy clusters. The entropies within 0.1r200（S（0.1r200）） of FSs are systematically lower than those in ordinary galaxy groups, which is consistent with previous reports, but we find their S（0.1r200）- T relation is more similar to galaxy clusters. The derived mass profiles of FSs are consistent with the Navarro, Frenk and White model in（0.1- 1）（r200）, and the relation between scale radius rs and characteristic mass density δc indicates self-similarity of dark matter halos of FSs. The ranges of rs and δc for FSs are also close to those of galaxy clusters. Therefore, FSs share more common characteristics with galaxy clusters. The special birth place of the FS makes it a distinct type of galaxy system.

Observations of the first light and the epoch of reionization

Studying the first generation of stars, galaxies and supermassive black holes as well as the epoch of reionization is one of the fundamental questions of modern as- trophysics. The last few years have witnessed the first confirmation of the discoveries of galaxies, quasars and Gamma-Ray Bursts at z 〉 7, with possible detections at z - 10. There is also mounting evidence that cosmic reionization is a prolonged pro- cess that peaks around z - 10 and ends at z- 6 - 7. Observations of the highest redshift intergalactic medium and the most metal-poor stars in the Galaxy begin to constrain the earliest chemical enrichment processes in the Universe. These observa- tions provide a glimpse of cosmic history over the first billion years after the Big Bang. In this review, we will present recent results on the observations of the high-redshift Universe over the past decade, highlight key challenges and uncertainties in these observations, and preview what is possible with the next generation facilities in studying the first light and mapping the history of reionization.

X-ray spectroscopy of clusters of galaxies

Clusters of galaxies are the most massive objects in the Universe and precise knowledge of their mass structure is important to understand the history of structure formation and constrain still unknown types of dark contents of the Universe. X-ray spectroscopy of galaxy clusters provides rich information about the physical state of hot intracluster gas and the underlying potential structure. In this paper, starting from the basic description of clusters under equilibrium conditions, we review properties of clusters revealed primarily through X-ray observations considering their thermal and dynamical evolutions. The future prospects of cluster studies using upcoming X-ray missions are also mentioned.

Inferring redshift and energy distributions of fast radio bursts from the first CHIME/FRB catalog

We reconstruct the extragalactic dispersion measure-redshift(DM_(E)-z)relation from well-localized fast radio bursts(FRBs)using Bayesian inference.Then,the DM_(E)-z relation is used to infer the redshift and energy of the first CHIME/FRB catalog.We find that the distributions of the extragalactic dispersion measure and inferred redshift of the non-repeating CHIME/FRBs follow a cut-off power law but with a significant excess at the low-redshift range.We apply a set of criteria to exclude events that are susceptible to the selection effect,but the excess at low redshifts still exists in the remaining FRBs(which we call the gold sample).The cumulative distributions of fluence and energy for both the full sample and the gold sample do not follow the simple power law,but they can be well fitted by the bent power law.The underlying physical implications require further investigation.

The continuous wavelet derived by smoothing function and its application in cosmology

The wavelet analysis technique is a powerful tool and is widely used in broad disciplines of engineering,technology,and sciences.In this work,we present a novel scheme of constructing continuous wavelet functions,in which the wavelet functions are obtained by taking the first derivative of smoothing functions with respect to the scale parameter.Due to this wavelet constructing scheme,the inverse transforms are only one-dimensional integrations with respect to the scale parameter,and hence the continuous wavelet transforms(CWTs)constructed in this way are more ready to use than the usual scheme.We then apply the Gaussian-derived wavelet constructed by our scheme to computations of the density power spectrum for dark matter,the velocity power spectrum and the kinetic energy spectrum for baryonic fluid.These computations exhibit the convenience and strength of the CWTs.The transforms are very easy to perform,and we believe that the simplicity of our wavelet scheme will make CWTs very useful in practice.

Search for correlations between host properties and DMhost of fast radio bursts:constraints on the baryon mass fraction in IGM

The application of fast radio bursts(FRBs)as probes for investigating astrophysics and cosmology requires proper modelling of the dispersion measures of the Milky Way(DM_(MW))and host galaxy(DM_(host)).DM_(MW)can be estimated using the Milky Way electron models,such as the NE2001 model and YMW16 model.However,DM_(host)is hard to model due to limited information on the local environment of the FRBs.In this study,using 17 well-localized FRBs,we search for possible correlations betweenDM_(host)and the properties of the host galaxies,such as the redshift,stellar mass,star-formation rate,age of galaxy,offset of the FRB site from the galactic center,and half-light radius.We find no strong correlation betweenDM_(host)and any of the host properties.Assuming thatDM_(host)is a constant for all host galaxies,we constrain the fraction of the baryon mass in the intergalactic medium today to bef_(IGM,0)=0.78_(-0.19)^(+0.15).If we modelDM_(host)as a log-normal distribution,however,we obtain a larger value,f_(IGM,0)=0.83_(-0.17)^(+0.12).Based on the limited number of FRBs,no strong evidence for a redshift evolution off_(IGM)is found.