Sergio Martin-Alvarez

We measure escape fractions, fesc, of ionizing radiation from galaxies in the sphinx suite of cosmological radiation-hydrodynamical simulations of reionization, resolving haloes with $M_{\rm vir}\gtrsim 7.5 \times 10^7 \ {\rm {M}_{\odot }}$ with a minimum cell width of ≈10 pc. Our new and largest 20 co-moving Mpc wide volume contains tens of thousands of star-forming galaxies with halo masses up to a few times 1011 M⊙. The simulated galaxies agree well with observational constraints of the ultraviolet (UV) luminosity function in the Epoch of Reionization. The escape fraction fluctuates strongly in individual galaxies over time-scales of a few Myr, due to its regulation by supernova and radiation feedback, and at any given time a tiny fraction of star-forming galaxies emits a large fraction of the ionizing radiation escaping into the intergalactic medium. Statistically, fesc peaks in intermediate-mass, intermediate-brightness, and low-metallicity galaxies (M* ≈ 107 M⊙, M1500 ≈ −17, Z ≲ 5 × 10−3 Z⊙), dropping strongly for lower and higher masses, brighter and dimmer galaxies, and more metal-rich galaxies. The escape fraction correlates positively with both the short-term and long-term specific star formation rate. According to sphinx, galaxies too dim to be yet observed, with ${M_{1500}}\gtrsim -17$, provide about 55 per cent of the photons contributing to reionization. The global averaged fesc naturally decreases with decreasing redshift, as predicted by UV background models and low-redshift observations. This evolution is driven by decreasing specific star formation rates over cosmic time.

Cosmic rays (CRs) are thought to play an important role in galaxy evolution. We study their effect when coupled to other important sources of feedback, namely supernovae (SNe) and stellar radiation, by including CR anisotropic diffusion and radiative losses but neglecting CR streaming. Using the ramses-rt code, we perform the first radiation-magnetohydrodynamics simulations of isolated disc galaxies with and without CRs. We study galaxies embedded in dark matter haloes of 1010, 1011, and $10^{12}\, \rm M_{\odot }$ with a maximum resolution of $9 \, \rm pc$. We find that CRs reduce the star formation (SF) rate in our two dwarf galaxies by a factor of 2, with decreasing efficiency with increasing galaxy mass. They increase significantly the outflow mass loading factor in all our galaxies and make the outflows colder. We study the impact of the CR diffusion coefficient, exploring values from κ = 1027 to $\rm 3\times 10^{29}\, cm^2\, s^{-1}$. With a lower κ, CRs remain confined for longer on small scales and are consequently efficient in suppressing SF, whereas a higher diffusion coefficient reduces the effect on SF and increases the generation of cold outflows. Finally, we compare CR feedback to a calibrated ’strong’ SN feedback model known to sufficiently regulate SF in high-redshift cosmological simulations. We find that CR feedback is not sufficiently strong to replace this strong SN feedback. As they tend to smooth out the ISM and fill it with denser gas, CRs also lower the escape fraction of Lyman continuum photons from galaxies.