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scienceMonday, May 18, 2026 at 05:36 PM
Lumina's Massive Volume Exposes Reionization Feedback Loops Smaller Simulations Overlook

Lumina's Massive Volume Exposes Reionization Feedback Loops Smaller Simulations Overlook

Lumina delivers the first large-box radiation-hydro run spanning both reionization epochs, showing late stellar HI reionization and AGN-driven HeII completion while matching Planck tau and exposing feedback-topology links missed by smaller simulations.

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The Lumina project marks a methodological leap in cosmological modeling by running radiation-hydrodynamics across a 500 comoving megaparsec box with 2×6000³ resolution elements, self-consistently tracking HI, HeI, and HeII reionization to z=3 using AREPO plus a six-bin M1 solver on top of the IllustrisTNG galaxy formation model. This preprint (arXiv:2605.15310) yields a stellar-driven hydrogen reionization completing around z≈5.2 with lingering neutral patches to z≈4.75, followed by AGN-driven HeII reionization finishing near z=3, while reproducing Planck's Thomson optical depth. Unlike prior smaller-volume efforts such as Thesan, which captured local topology but suffered from cosmic variance in rare AGN environments, Lumina's scale directly links feedback prescriptions to large-scale IGM topology, revealing a clear thermal boost during HeII reionization that aligns with Lyman-alpha forest temperature measurements. Original coverage underplays how including baryon-dark matter streaming velocities alters early galaxy formation efficiency, an effect that propagates into reionization patchiness and could reconcile tensions with JWST's abundant bright galaxies at z>10. By extending the calibrated TNG framework (Pillepich et al. 2018) into radiation transport, Lumina enables forward-modeling of 21-cm signals and metal absorbers that smaller boxes distort, though it inherits TNG's subgrid feedback assumptions and uses only six frequency bins, limiting spectral precision. These choices trade some microphysical detail for statistical power over rare objects and environments.

⚡ Prediction

Lumina: Its large-volume coupling of stellar and AGN radiation reveals how early HI topology seeds observable HeII thermal signatures, providing testable priors for next-generation 21-cm arrays.

Sources (3)

  • [1]
    Primary Source(https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.15310)
  • [2]
    IllustrisTNG Galaxy Formation Model(https://arxiv.org/abs/1707.03395)
  • [3]
    Planck 2018 Cosmological Parameters(https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.06209)