Related papers: First Light and Reionization: A Conference Summary
In cosmological models favored by current observations, the first astrophysical objects formed in dark matter halos at redshifts starting at z>20, and their properties were determined by primordial H_2 molecular chemistry. These…
We summarize recent results presented in the astrophysics session during a conference on ``Frontiers of Contemporary Physics''. We will discuss three main fields (High-Energy Astrophysics, Relativistic Astrophysics, and Cosmology), where…
In this speculative, millenial essay, I try to anticipate what sort of novel gravitational optics investigations might be observed, after it becomes possible to map and monitor roughly a trillion sources (of which a billion may be usefully…
The universe would have been completely dark between the epoch of recombination and the development of the first non-linear structure. But at redshifts beyond 5 -- perhaps even beyond 20 -- stars formed within `subgalaxies' and created the…
The dramatic confrontation between new observations and theories of the early and recent universe makes cosmology one of the most rapidly advancing fields in the physical sciences. The universe is a unique laboratory in which to probe…
Gravitational-wave astronomy will soon become a new tool for observing the Universe. Detecting and interpreting gravitational waves will require deep theoretical insights into astronomical sources. The past three decades have seen…
The intergalactic medium - the cosmic gas that fills the great spaces between the galaxies - is affected by processes ranging from quantum fluctuations in the very early universe to radiative emission from newly-formed stars. This gives the…
The study of the Universe and all its contents, the physical phenomena and the evolution of the sky objects has always attracted the Humanity. The Astronomy begins to try to explain these things, others sciences too. Therefore, we think a…
I endeavour to provide a thorough overview of our current knowledge of high-redshift galaxies and their evolution during the first billion years of cosmic time, corresponding to redshifts z > 5. After first summarizing progress with the…
Observational cosmology is on the verge of new discoveries that will change the essence of our world-view. The matter concerns origin of initial conditions and physics of dark matter.
One of the milestones in the cosmic history is the formation of the first luminous objects and Hydrogen reionization. The standard theory of cosmic structure formation predicts that the first generation of stars were born about a few…
How and when do galaxies form? Studies of the microwave background radiation reveal that the Universe is spectacularly homogenous at redshift z~1000. Observations of the local Universe reveal that by z=0 much of the luminous matter has…
The early phases of galaxy formation constitute one of the most exciting frontiers in astrophysics. It is during this era that the first luminous sources reionize the intergalactic medium - the moment when structure formation affects every…
For millennia, humanity has relied exclusively on light$\unicode{x2014}$initially visible light and, later, broader and broader portions of the electromagnetic spectrum$\unicode{x2014}$to observe the universe. In the past decade, a…
The elegance of inflationary cosmology and cosmological perturbation theory ends with the formation of the first stars and galaxies, the initial sources of light that launched the phenomenologically rich process of cosmic reionization. Here…
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…
Understanding the formation and evolution of the first stars and galaxies represents one of the most exciting frontiers in astronomy. Since the universe was filled with neutral hydrogen at early times, the most promising method for…
The epoch of reionization (EoR) corresponds to a 'cosmic phase transition', when the neutral intergalactic medium (IGM) becomes ionized by the first stars and/or AGN. While the discoveries of Gunn-Peterson (GP) absorption troughs in the…
We show results for the expected reach of the network of experiments that is being set up globally with the aim of detecting the "invisible" axion, in light of a non-standard thermal history of the universe. Assuming that the axion is the…
The observation of primordial gravitational waves could provide a new and unique window on the earliest moments in the history of the universe, and on possible new physics at energies many orders of magnitude beyond those accessible at…