Ringing of the Reionization: A first direct measurement of the intergalactic pressure smoothing scale at redshift z>4.2 as imprinted onto small-scale peculiar velocities in the Lyman-alpha forest

The epoch of reionization leaves detectable imprints in the thermal history of the Universe. In particular, the fast ionization fronts passing over cold gas in the cosmic web overpressurize the gas, leading to the well-established phenomenon of pressure smoothing due to the hydrodynamic response of the gas. Although the effect has been indirectly measured from the power spectra of the Lyman- alpha forest over the past decades, very few examples exist of directly measuring the typical scale associated with this physical process. This work identifies an acoustic feature in the power spectrum of the projected peculiar velocity gradient eta. Using toy models and linear theory, this work shows that the acoustic feature is likely strongly associated with the pressure smoothing scale. A feature at the same scale is imprinted on the small-scale flux power spectrum of the Lyman- alpha forest at k=0.1-1; s/km. A methodology developed for the simulations is applied to the latest measurements of the flux power spectra at z=4.2-5.0 to provide the first direct measurements of the pressure smoothing scale at high redshifts, lambda p(z=4.2) > 33.78; ckpc;(1 sigma), lambda p(z=4.6) = 32.36 plus or minus8.35; ckpc and lambda p(z=5.0)=31.27 plus or minus18.28; ckpc. This proof-of-concept study paves the way for future observational programs aimed at recovering the thermal history using small-scale observations of the Lyman- alpha forest.