Related papers: Did Globular Clusters Reionize the Universe?
We place constraints on the formation redshifts for blue globular clusters (BGCs), independent of the details of hydrodynamics and population III star formation. The observed radial distribution of BGCs in the Milky Way Galaxy suggests that…
The critical star formation rate density required to keep the intergalactic hydrogen ionised depends crucially on the average rate of recombinations in the intergalactic medium (IGM). This rate is proportional to the clumping factor C =…
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…
Large-scale polarization of the cosmic microwave background measured by the WMAP satellite requires a mean optical depth to Thomson scattering, tau_e ~ 0.17. The reionization of the universe must therefore have begun at relatively high…
The escape fraction of Lyman-continuum (LyC) photons ($f_{esc}$) is a key parameter for determining the sources of cosmic reionization at $z\geq 6$. At these redshifts, owing to the opacity of the intergalactic medium, the LyC emission…
Theoretical studies and current observations of the high-redshift intergalactic medium (IGM) indicate that at least two cosmic transitions occur by the time the universe reaches gas metallicities of about $10^{-3}$ of solar values. These…
Using existing models for the evolution of clustering we show that the first sources are likely to be highly biased and thus strongly clustered. We compute intensity fluctuations for clustered sources in a uniform IGM. The strong…
We investigate the possibility that the Universe is reionized by the decay products of heavy particles. In particular we study under which circumstances this decay may produce a significant reionization at high redshift ($z \simeq 20$), as…
The Epoch of Reionization (EoR) began when galaxies grew in abundance and luminosity, so their escaping Lyman continuum (LyC) radiation started ionizing the surrounding neutral intergalactic medium (IGM). Despite significant recent…
Identifying the population of galaxies that was responsible for the reionization of the universe is a long-standing quest in astronomy. We present a possible local analog that has an escape fraction of ionizing flux of 21%. Our detection…
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…
We calculate the observable signatures of the first generation of stars at high redshift (5<z<100). To determine the cosmic star-formation history, we use an extension of the Press-Schechter formalism for Cold Dark Matter (CDM) cosmologies…
Compact, low-mass galaxies with strong nebular emission are considered promising candidates for efficient ionizing photon production and escape. We present a spatially resolved analysis of 189 galaxies at redshifts $z \sim 6.7-7.6$ in JADES…
Reionization represents an important phase in the history of our Universe when ultraviolet radiation from the first luminous sources, primarily stars and accreting black holes, ionized the neutral hydrogen atoms in the intergalactic medium…
A major goal of observational and theoretical cosmology is to observe the largely unexplored time period in the history of our universe when the first galaxies form, and to interpret these measurements. Early galaxies dramatically impacted…
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…
Observations of the Ly-alpha forest at z~3 reveal an average metallicity Z~0.01 Z_solar. The high-redshift supernovae that polluted the IGM also accelerated relativistic electrons. Since the energy density of the CMB scales as (1+z)^4, at…
The first stars in the universe are thought to be massive, forming in dark matter halos with masses around 10^6 solar masses. Recent simulations suggest that these metal-free (Population III) stars may form in binary or multiple systems.…
Using a new physical model for star formation (Padoan 1995) we have tested the possibility that globular clusters (GCs) are formed from primordial mass fluctuations, whose mass scale ($10^8$ - $10^9$ M$_{\odot}$) is selected out of a CDM…
An estimate for the number of ionizing photons per baryon as a function of redshift is computed based on the plausible extrapolation of the observed galaxy UV luminosity function and the latest results on the properties of the escape…