https://www.sexten-cfa.eu/event/understanding-the-epoch-of-cosmic-reionization/
The birth of the first stars, galaxies and black holes heralded the end of the cosmic Dark Ages, ushering in the Cosmic Dawn. Light from these objects spread out, heating and ionizing virtually every baryon in our Universe. This Epoch of Reionization (EoR) was the last major phase change of our Universe, encoding a wealth of information about the unseen first galaxies and structures in the intergalactic medium (IGM). Despite spanning the majority of our visible Universe, the EoR has only recently begun to be explored.
We now have many observational clues of the EoR, including from:
(i) the opacity of the Lyman alpha and beta forests;
(ii) damping wing imprints in QSO spectra;
(iii) evolution of Lyman alpha emitting galaxies;
(iv) clustering of Lyman alpha emitters;
(v) CMB polarization power spectra;
(vi) the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel’Dovich effect in CMB temperature fluctuations;
(vii) the cosmic 21-cm signal.
However, interpreting these observations is challenging, requiring careful modeling of both the cosmic signal as well as associated systematics.
This workshop will focus on putting together these pieces of the puzzle of reionization. What was the timing of the EoR? What sources were responsible? How did they interact with themselves and their surroundings through feedback mechanisms? What are the associated observational signatures? What was the role of IGM structures? How can we improve models of the EoR? How do we best build forward models, accounting for relevant theoretical and observational systematics? Where are the next observational breakthroughs? How do we best prepare for upcoming data from next generation telescopes like JWST and SKA?