Related papers: Probing the physical properties of the intergalact…

The study of the properties of galaxies in the first billion years after the Big Bang is one of the major topic of current astrophysics. Optical/near-infrared spectroscopy of the afterglows of long Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) provide a powerful…

We present the results of a large survey of HI, OVI, and CIII absorption lines in the low-redshift (z<0.3) intergalactic medium (IGM). We begin with 171 strong Lyalpha absorption lines (W>80 mA) in 31 AGN sight lines studied with the Hubble…

We investigate properties of the interstellar medium (ISM) in galaxies hosting long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) from an analysis of atomic species (MgI, FeI) and excited fine-structure levels of ions (e.g. SiII). Our analysis is guided…

We investigate the thermal history of the intergalactic medium (IGM) in the redshift interval z=1.7--3.2 by studying the small-scale fluctuations in the Lyman alpha forest transmitted flux. We apply a wavelet filtering technique to eighteen…

Observations have established that the diffuse intergalactic medium (IGM) at z ~ 3 is enriched to ~0.1-1% solar metallicity and that the hot gas in large clusters of galaxies (ICM) is enriched to 1/3-1/2 solar metallicity at z=0. Metals in…

Atomic Hydrogen-21 cm transition (HI) is an excellent tracer to study and understand the properties of the atomic gas in the Galaxy. Using the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT), we observed 12 quasar sightlines to detect galactic…

Recent years have seen major advances in understanding the state of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at high redshift. Some aspects of this understanding are reviewed here. In particular, we discuss: (1) Different probes of IGM like…

We use the spectral synthesis code Cloudy to tabulate the properties of gas for an extensive range in redshift (z=0 to 9), temperature (log T [K] = 1 to 9.5), metallicity (log Z/$\mathrm{Z}_{\odot}$ = -4 to +0.5, Z=0), and density (log…

In this paper we use a number of observations to construct an integrated picture of the ionisation in the interiors of quiescent warm opaque interstellar clouds and in the intercloud medium (ICM) outside dense HII regions and hot dilute…

We present model calculations of ionization fractions for elements in the warm (log T = 4), low-density photoionized interstellar medium (WIM) of the Milky Way. We model the WIM as a combination of overlapping low-excitation H II regions…

We explore the multiphase structure of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) probed by synthetic spectra through a cosmological zoom-in galaxy formation simulation. We employ a Bayesian method for modelling a combination of absorption lines to…

The high-redshift intergalactic medium (IGM) and the primeval galaxy population are rapidly becoming the new frontier of extra-galactic astronomy. We investigate the IGM properties and their connection to galaxies at $z\geq5.5$ under…

The temperature of the low-density intergalactic medium is set by the balance between adiabatic cooling resulting from the expansion of the universe, and photo-heating by the UV-background. We have analysed the Lyman-alpha forest of eleven…

The redshifted 21-cm signal from the epoch of reionization (EoR) directly probes the ionization and thermal states of the intergalactic medium during that period. In particular, the distribution of the ionized regions around the radiating…

The Lyman alpha absorption from intergalactic, once-ionized helium (HeII) has been measured with HST in four quasars over the last few years, over the redshift range 2.4 < z < 3.2. These observations have indicated that the HeII…

The part played by stars in the ionization of the intergalactic medium remains an open question. A key issue is the proportion of the stellar ionizing radiation that escapes the galaxies in which it is produced. Spectroscopy of gamma-ray…

By heating the intergalactic medium (IGM) before reionization, X-rays are expected to play a prominent role in the early Universe. The cosmic 21-cm signal from this "Epoch of Heating" (EoH) could serve as a clean probe of high-energy…

We use hydrodynamic cosmological simulations in a 9.6 Mpc box to explore the evolution of the intergalactic medium (IGM) transmissivity from z=2 through the epoch of reionization. Reionization is achieved through an ultraviolet background…

We present a direct measurement of the metallicity distribution function for the high redshift intergalactic medium. We determine the shape of this function using survival statistics, which account for both detections and non-detections of…

We compute the expected X-ray diffuse background and radiative feedback on the intergalactic medium (IGM) from X-ray binaries prior and during the epoch of reionization. The cosmic evolution of compact binaries is followed using a…