A&A Colloquium: Brant Robertson (UC Santa Cruz)

3:30–4:30 pm Zoom - TBA

"Thermal History of the Intergalactic Medium Since Reionization"

The structure of the intergalactic medium (IGM) encodes information on the physics of structure formation and the late thermal history of baryons in the universe. The power of IGM observations, such as probes of the Lyman alpha forest of absorption lines tracing the cosmic web, to constrain the shape of the power spectrum has motivated in part new experiments like the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument that seek to understand the development of cosmic structure. The properties of Lyman alpha forest are heavily influenced by its thermal history, which determines its pressure smoothing and small scale structure. A thorough understanding of the thermal history is therefore crucial to interpreting constraints on the power spectrum. In this talk, I’ll show how we can leverage a new computational approach that enables high resolution throughout cosmological volumes to compute the thermal history of the IGM in fine detail. I’ll show how the reionization history of the IGM influences the subsequent evolution of the Lyman alpha forest, and discuss how current and forthcoming experiments will teach us about both the thermal evolution and physical structure of the IGM after reionization.

Event Type

Colloquia, Seminars, Talks

Jun 3