UCLA

Large variations in the effective optical depth of the He II Ly$\alpha$ forest have been observed at $z\gtrsim2.7$, but the physical nature of these variations is uncertain: either the Universe is still undergoing the process of He II reionization, or the Universe is highly ionized but the He II-ionizing background fluctuates significantly on large scales. In an effort to build upon our understanding of the latter scenario, we present a novel model for the evolution of ionizing background fluctuations. Previous models have assumed the mean free path of ionizing photons to be spatially uniform, ignoring the dependence of that scale on the local ionization state of the intergalactic medium (IGM). This assumption is reasonable when the mean free path is large compared to the average distance between the primary sources of He II-ionizing photons, $\gtrsim L_\star$ quasars. However, when this is no longer the case, the background fluctuations become more severe, and an accurate description of the average propagation of ionizing photons through the IGM requires additionally accounting for the fluctuations in opacity. We demonstrate the importance of this effect by constructing 3D semi-analytic models of the helium ionizing background from $z=2.5$-$3.5$ that explicitly include a spatially varying mean free path of ionizing photons. The resulting distribution of effective optical depths at large scales in the He II Ly$\alpha$ forest is very similar to the latest observations with HST/COS at $2.5 \lesssim z \lesssim 3.5$.