We present an analytical description of the energetics of the population of cosmic accretion shocks , for a concordance cosmology ( \Omega _ { m } + \Omega _ { \Lambda } = 1 ) .
We calculate how the shock-processed accretion power and mass current are distributed among different shock Mach numbers , and how they evolve with cosmic time .
We calculate the cumulative energy input of cosmic accretion shocks of any Mach number to the intergalactic medium as a function of redshift , and we compare it with the energy output of supernova explosions as well as with the energy input required to reionize the universe .
In addition , we investigate and quantify the effect of environmental factors , such as local clustering properties and filament preheating on the statistical properties of these shocks .
We find that the energy processed by accretion shocks is higher than the supernova energy output for all z < 3 and that it becomes more than an order of magnitude higher in the local universe .
The energy processed by accretion shocks alone becomes comparable to the energy required to reionize the universe by z \sim 3.5 .
Finally , we establish both qualitative and quantitatively that both local clustering as well as filament compression and preheating are important factors in determining the statistical properties of the cosmic accretion shock population .