Related papers: A Cosmic UV/X-ray Background Model Update

A fraction of the extragalactic near-infrared (near-IR) background light involves redshifted photons from the ultraviolet (UV) emission from galaxies present during reionization at redshifts above 6. The absolute intensity and the…

In developing a deeper understanding of the Circumgalactic Medium, one feature that is poorly understood is the nature of the ultraviolet background (UVB) and its impact on observed column densities. A wide array of UVB models have been…

The first generation of stars (commonly known as population III) are expected to form in low-mass protogalaxies in which molecular hydrogen is the dominant coolant. Radiation from these stars will rapidly build up an extragalactic…

In this work we investigate the properties of the sources that reionized the intergalactic medium (IGM) in the high-redshift Universe. Using a semi-analytical model aimed at reproducing galaxies and black holes in the first 1.5 Gyr of the…

We use synthetic sightlines drawn through snapshots of the Technicolor Dawn simulations to explore how the statistics of neutral oxygen OI absorbers respond to hydrogen reionization. The ionization state of the circumgalactic medium (CGM)…

A model of the density distribution in the intergalactic medium, motivated by that found in numerical simulations, is used to demonstrate the effect of a clumpy IGM and discrete sources on the reionization of the universe. In an…

The history of the transition from a neutral intergalactic medium to one that is almost fully ionized can reveal the character of cosmological ionizing sources. In this talk I will discuss the implications for rival reionization scenarios…

We develop a new method to determine the distance between a high-redshift galaxy and a foreground screen of atomic hydrogen. In a partially neutral universe, and assuming spherical symmetry, this equates to the radius of a ionized 'bubble'…

Next-generation 21cm observations will enable imaging of reionization on very large scales. These images will contain more astrophysical and cosmological information than the power spectrum, and hence providing an alternative way to…

We explore the kinematics of ionized gas via the [O III] $\lambda$5007 emission lines in active galactic nuclei (AGN) selected on the basis of their mid-infrared (IR) emission, and split into obscured and unobscured populations based on…

Star-forming galaxies are the sources likely to have reionized the universe. As we cannot observe them directly due to the opacity of the intergalactic medium at $z\gtrsim5$, we study $z\sim3\text{--}5$ galaxies as proxies to place…

I review recent observational and theoretical progress in our understanding of the cosmic evolution of luminous sources. Through a combination of deep imaging, Keck spectroscopy, and COBE background measurements, important constraints have…

Absorption due to HeII Ly-alpha has been detected at low resolution in the spectra of four quasars between redshifts z = 2.74-3.29. We assess these observations, giving particular attention to the radiative transfer of the ionizing…

Following the completion of cosmic reionization, the mean-free-path of ionizing photons was set by a population of Ly-limit absorbers. As the mean-free-path steadily grew, the intensity of the ionizing background also grew, thus lowering…

The end of the Cosmic Dark Age marked the onset of reionization, driven by extreme-UV photons from the first galaxies. Direct detection of such photons has remained challenging due to strong intergalactic attenuation. Here, we report the…

We present semi-analytic models of the epoch of reionization focusing on the differences between continuous and bursty star formation (SF). Our model utilizes physically motivated analytic fits to 1D radiative transfer simulations of HII…

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…

JWST has revealed diverse new populations of high-redshift ($z\sim4-11$) AGN and extreme star-forming galaxies that challenge current models. In this paper, we use rest-frame UV emission-line diagnostics to identify AGN candidates and other…

There has been remarkable progress recently in both observational and theoretical studies of galaxy formation and evolution. Largely due to a combination of deep Hubble Space Telescope imaging, Keck spectroscopy, and COBE far-IR background…

In preparation of a study of the HeII/HI ratio towards the bright QSO HS1700+6416, we predict the metal line content of the far-UV spectral range by modelling 18 metal absorption line systems with redshifts 0.2<z<2.6 identified in the…