Related papers: Evolution of the Intergalactic Opacity: Implicatio…
A variety of observations now indicate that intergalactic helium was fully ionized by z~3. The most recent measurements of the high-redshift quasar luminosity function imply that these sources had produced ~2.5 ionizing photons per helium…
We develop an efficient method to study the effects of reionization history on the temperature-density relation of the intergalactic medium in the low density limit (overdensity less than 5). It is applied to the study of photo-reionization…
We present an analysis combining the simultaneous measurement of intergalactic absorption by hydrogen (H I), helium (He II) and oxygen (O VI) in UV and optical quasar spectra. The combination of the H I and He II Lyman-alpha forests through…
Previous studies of the 2.2 < z< 2.7 HeII Lyman-alpha forest measured much larger ionizing background fluctuations than are anticipated theoretically. We re-analyze recent Hubble Space Telescope data from the two HeII sightlines that have…
Early results from JWST suggest that epoch-of-reionization (EoR) galaxies produce copious ionizing photons, which, if they escape efficiently, could cause reionization to occur too early. We study this problem using \jwst\ imaging and prism…
Interpretation of the \ion{Fe}{2}(UV)/\ion{Mg}{2} emission ratios from quasars has a major cosmological motivation. Both Fe and Mg are produced by short-lived massive stars. In addition, Fe is produced by accreting white dwarf supernovae…
Recent observations have set the first constraints on the epoch of reionization (EoR), corresponding to the formation epoch of the first luminous objects. Studies of Gunn-Peterson (GP) absorption, and related phenomena, suggest a…
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…
We reduce and analyse the available James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) ERO and ERS NIRCam imaging (SMACS0723, GLASS, CEERS) in combination with the latest deep ground-based near-infrared imaging in the COSMOS field (provided by UltraVISTA…
[Abridged] Understanding how the intergalactic medium (IGM) was reionized at z > 6 is one of the big challenges of current high redshift astronomy. It requires modelling the collapse of the first astrophysical objects (Pop III stars, first…
Recently, models of the quasar luminosity function (QLF) rooted on large observational compilations have been produced that, unlike their predecessors, feature a smooth evolution with time. This bypasses the need to assume an ionizing…
We investigate the burstiness of star formation and the ionizing efficiency of a large sample of galaxies at $0.7 < z < 1.5$ using HST grism spectroscopy and deep ultraviolet (UV) imaging in the GOODS-N and GOODS-S fields. The star…
The Epoch of Reionization marks the last major phase transition in the early Universe, during which the majority of neutral hydrogen once filling the intergalactic medium was ionized by the first galaxies. The James Webb Space Telescope is…
We present DEIMOS spectroscopic observations of the most UV-luminous star-forming galaxies at 3.2<z<4.6. Our sample contains galaxies with luminosities of L*<L<7L* and is one of the largest samples to date of the most UV-luminous galaxies…
We report on the detection of strongly varying intergalactic HeII absorption in HST/COS spectra of two z~3 quasars. From our homogeneous analysis of the HeII absorption in these and three archival sightlines, we find a marked increase in…
We show that evolution of the luminosity density of galaxies in the universe provides a powerful test for the geometry of the universe. Using reasonable galaxy evolution models of population synthesis which reproduce the colors of local…
At redshifts z >~ 2, most of the baryons reside in the smooth intergalactic medium which is responsible for the low column density Lyman-alpha forest. This photoheated gas follows a tight temperature-density relation which introduces a…
We use very deep (R_lim=27) UGRI imaging to study the evolution of the faint end of the UV-selected galaxy luminosity function from z~4 to z~2. We find that the luminosity function evolves with time and that this evolution is differential…
We investigate the properties of the galaxies that reionized the Universe and the history of cosmic reionization using the "Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their environments" (EAGLE) cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. We…
The sources which reionized the Intergalactic Medium by redshift ~6 are still unknown. A severe constraint on the ionization process is the low emissivity required to maintain the ionization in the Lyman-{\alpha} forest.…