The inhomogeneous background of H2 dissociating radiation during cosmic reionization

Abstract

The first, self-consistent calculations of the cosmological H2 dissociating UV background produced during the epoch of reionization by the sources of reionization are presented. Large-scale radiative transfer simulations of reionization trace the impact of all the ionizing starlight on the IGM from all sources in our simulation volume down to dwarf galaxies of mass ~108 M[sun], identified by very high-resolution N-body simulations, including the self-regulating effect of IGM photoheating on dwarf galaxy formation. The UV continuum emitted below 13.6 eV by each source is then transferred through the same IGM, attenuated by atomic H Lyman series resonance lines, to predict the evolution of the inhomogeneous background in the Lyman-Werner band of H2 between 11 and 13.6 eV