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It is generally taken for granted that reionization has completed by z=6, due to the detection of flux in the Lyman alpha forest at redshifts z<6. However, since reionization is expected to be highly inhomogeneous, much of the spectra pass…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-14 Andrei Mesinger

Line Intensity Mapping (LIM) has garnered attention as a powerful cosmological probe, with next-generation instruments such as SPHEREx preparing to map the evolution of large-scale structure during the Epoch of Reionization (EoR).…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2025-12-09 Mouza Almualla , Aaron Smith , Rahul Kannan , Lars Hernquist , Enrico Garaldi , Adam Lidz , Kevin Lorinc , Jennifer Yik Ham Chan , Mark Vogelsberger

Understanding when and how reionization happened is crucial for studying the early structure formation and the properties of first galaxies in the Universe. At $z>5.5$, the observed IGM optical depth shows a significant scatter, indicating…

We show that comparisons of HeII Lyman-alpha forest lines of sight to nearby quasar populations can strongly constrain the lifetimes and emission geometry of quasars. By comparing the HeII and HI Lyman-alpha forests along a particular line…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-19 Steven Furlanetto , Adam Lidz

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…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-05-10 Piero Madau , Tassos Fragos

Estimates of the metagalactic hydrogen ionization rate from the Lyman-alpha forest opacity in QSO absorption spectra depend on the complex density distribution of neutral hydrogen along the line-of-sight. We use a large suite of high…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 James S. Bolton , Martin G. Haehnelt , Matteo Viel , Volker Springel

We present a new Bayesian algorithm making use of Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling that allows us to simultaneously estimate the unknown continuum level of each quasar in an ensemble of high-resolution spectra, as well as their common…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2017-08-09 Anna-Christina Eilers , Joseph F. Hennawi , Khee-Gan Lee

The intergalactic helium became fully ionized by the end of cosmic noon ($z\sim2$). Similarly to the reionization of hydrogen, helium reionization is expected to be patchy, driven by luminous quasars that ionize the intergalactic gas in…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2025-08-14 Mesut Çalışkan , Neha Anil Kumar , Selim C. Hotinli , Marc Kamionkowski

The reionization of the second electron of helium (HeII) leaves important imprints on the thermal and ionization state of the intergalactic medium (IGM). Observational evidence suggests that HeII reionization ended at $z \simeq 3$ due to…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2025-04-01 Akanksha Kapahtia , Tirthankar Roy Choudhury

This paper presents ionization-corrected measurements of the carbon abundance in intergalactic gas at 4.0 < z < 4.5, using spectra of three bright quasars obtained with the MIKE spectrograph on Magellan. By measuring the CIV strength in a…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-05-28 Robert A. Simcoe

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. A sudden injection of entropy from the…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 Tom Theuns , Saleem Zaroubi , Tae-Sun Kim

The recent measurement of an ionising mean free path $\lambda_{\text{mfp}}<1$ pMpc at $z=6$ challenges our understanding of the small-scale structure of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at the end of reionisation. We introduce a new method to…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2021-09-01 Sarah E. I. Bosman

Lyman-$\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$) spectra provide insights into the small-scale structure and kinematics of neutral hydrogen (HI) within galaxies as well as the ionization state of the intergalactic medium (IGM). The former defines the intrinsic…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-10-21 Chris Byrohl , Max Gronke

The intergalactic medium (IGM) at $z\sim$ 5 to 6 is largely ionized, and yet the main source for the IGM ionization in the early universe is uncertain. Of the possible contributors are faint quasars with $-26 \lesssim M_{\rm 1450} \lesssim…

The density and temperature properties of the intergalactic medium (IGM) reflect the heating and ionization history during cosmological structure formation, and are primarily probed by the Lyman-alpha forest of neutral hydrogen absorption…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2021-05-26 Bruno Villasenor , Brant Robertson , Piero Madau , Evan Schneider

The visibility of LyA emitting galaxies during the Epoch of Reionization is controlled by both diffuse HI patches in large-scale bubble morphology and small-scale absorbers. To investigate the impact on LyA photons, we apply a novel…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2016-09-07 Koki Kakiichi , Mark Dijkstra , Benedetta Ciardi , Luca Graziani

Ly$\alpha$ is the transition to the ground state from the first excited state of hydrogen (the most common element). Resonant scattering of this line by neutral hydrogen greatly impedes its emergence from galaxies, so the fraction of…

We present a new investigation of the intergalactic medium (IGM) near the end of reionization using "dark gaps" in the Lyman-alpha (Ly$\alpha$) forest. Using spectra of 55 QSOs at $z_{\rm em}>5.5$, including new data from the XQR-30 VLT…

The discovery of Lyman-alpha emission from galaxies at redshifts beyond z~6.5 should not be naively interpreted as implying that the intergalactic medium (IGM) had been reionized at higher redsifts. We show that a cluster of faint…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 Stuart Wyithe , Abraham Loeb

The time frame in which hydrogen reionization occurred is highly uncertain, but can be constrained by observations of Lyman-alpha (Ly$\alpha$) emission from distant sources. Neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium (IGM) attenuates…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2021-10-05 Alexa Morales , Charlotte Mason , Sean Bruton , Max Gronke , Francesco Haardt , Claudia Scarlata