Energy Sources
While observations have come in which narrow the window during which the epoch of reionization could have taken place, it is still uncertain which objects provided the photons that reionized the IGM. To ionize neutral hydrogen, an energy larger than 13.6 eV is required, which corresponds to photons with a wavelength of 91.2 nm or shorter. This is in the ultraviolet part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which means that the primary candidates are all sources which produce a significant amount of energy in the ultraviolet and above. How numerous the source is must also be considered, as well as the longevity, as protons and electrons will recombine if energy is not continuously provided to keep them apart. Altogether, the critical parameter for any source considered can be summarized as its "emission rate of hydrogen-ionizing photons per unit cosmological volume." With these constraints, it is expected that quasars and first generation stars were the main sources of energy.
Read more about this topic: Reionization
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