The Lyman-continuum photon production efficiency in the high-redshift Universe

Abstract

The Lyman Continuum photon production efficiency ($\xi_{\rm ion}$) is a critical ingredient for inferring the number of photons available to reionise the intergalactic medium. To estimate the theoretical production efficiency in the high-redshift Universe we couple the BlueTides cosmological hydrodynamical simulation with a range of stellar population synthesis models. We find Lyman Continuum photon production efficiencies of $\log_{10}(\xi_{\rm ion}/{\rm erg^{-1}\, Hz})\approx 25.1-25.5$ depending on the choice of stellar population synthesis model. These results are broadly consistent with recent observational constraints at high-redshift though favour a model incorporating the effects of binary evolution