Related papers: Analytical Models of the Intergalactic Medium and …
The presence of ultra-high energy cosmic rays in the universe in the pre-ionization epoch enhances significantly H$_2$ kinetics in virialized halos. It results in more efficient radiative cooling and decreases the lower mass limit of the…
Determining when and how the first galaxies reionized the intergalactic medium (IGM) promises to shed light on both the nature of the first objects and the cosmic history of baryons. Towards this goal, quasar absorption lines play a unique…
The cosmic dawn and epoch of reionization mark the time period in the universe when stars, galaxies, and blackhole seeds first formed and the intergalactic medium changed from neutral to an ionized one. Despite substantial progress with…
Galactic stellar halos have long been considered to contain fossil information on early dynamical and chemical evolution of galaxies. We propose that the surface brightness distributions of old stellar halos contain the influence of…
The global history of reionization was shaped by the relative amounts of starlight released by three halo mass groups: atomic-cooling halos (ACHs) with virial temperatures Tvir > 10^4 K, either (1) massive enough to form stars even after…
The early reionization of the intergalactic medium, which is favored from the WMAP temperature-polarization cross-correlations, contests the validity of the standard scenario of structure formation in the cold dark matter cosmogony. It is…
During the Epoch of reionisation, the intergalactic medium is reionised by the UV radiation from the first generation of stars and galaxies. One tracer of the process is the 21 cm line of hydrogen that will be observed by the Square…
The bulk of cosmic matter resides in a dilute reservoir that fills the space between galaxies, the intergalactic medium (IGM). The history of this reservoir is intimately tied to the cosmic histories of structure formation, star formation,…
Redshifted 21cm measurements of the structure of ionised regions that grow during reionization promise to provide a new probe of early galaxy and structure formation. One of the challenges of modelling reionization is to account both for…
In the light of the recent Planck downward revision of the electron scattering optical depth, and of the discovery of a faint AGN population at $z > 4$, we reassess the actual contribution of quasars to cosmic reionization. To this aim, we…
We use a probabilistic method to compute the propagation of an ionization front corresponding to the re-ionization of the intergalactic medium in a LCDM cosmology, including both hydrogen and helium. The effects of radiative transfer…
The ultraviolet background (UVB) emitted by quasars and galaxies governs the ionization and thermal state of the intergalactic medium (IGM), regulates the formation of high-redshift galaxies, and is thus a key quantity for modeling cosmic…
The reionization of helium is thought to occur at $2.5\lesssim z\lesssim4$, marking the last phase transition and final global heating event of the intergalactic medium (IGM). Since it is driven by rare quasars, helium reionization should…
We study the impact of inhomogeneous hydrogen reionization on the thermal evolution of the intergalactic medium (IGM) using hydrodynamic + radiative transfer simulations where reionization is completed either early (z ~ 9) or late (z ~ 6).…
Early reionization changes the pattern of anisotropies expected in the cosmic microwave background. To explore these changes, we derive from first principles the equations governing anisotropies, focusing on the interactions of photons with…
The epoch of reionization is one of the least known chapters in the evolutionary history of the Universe. This thesis investigates two major approaches to unveil the reionization history of the Universe using HI 21-cm maps.The most…
Traditional large-scale models of reionization usually employ simple deterministic relations between halo mass and luminosity to predict how reionization proceeds. We here examine the impact on modelling reionization of using more detailed…
We present a detailed calculation of the propagation of AGN-like ionizing radiation through the intergalactic space. We model the ionization state of absorbing clouds, and show that the universe will be more opaque above $4\,$Ryd than…
The filamentary network of intergalactic medium (IGM) gas that gives origin to the Lyman-alpha forest in the spectra of distant quasars encodes information on the physics of structure formation and the early thermodynamics of diffuse…
Hydrogen in the Universe was (re)ionised between redshifts $z \approx 10$ and $z \approx 6$. The nature of the sources of the ionising radiation is hotly debated, with faint galaxies below current detection limits regarded as prime…