Intergalactic medium

Intergalactic Medium

Simulations of the Intergalactic Medium

I present a review by epoch of baryons in the intergalac-tic medium (IGM), from the first star until today. Recent observations indicate a protracted period of reionization, suggesting multiple populations of reionizers; detection of these z ∼ > 6 sources is a key goal that is now coming within reach. The optical Lyman alpha forest (2 ∼ < z ∼ < 4) is well-described by the Fluctuating Gunn-Peter...

Constraint on intergalactic dust from thermal history of intergalactic medium

We present a new constraint on the amount of dust in the intergalactic medium (IGM) at high redshift. We derive the thermal history of the IGM by taking account of the photoelectric heating by dust grains, and compare it with the thermal history suggested by observations of Lyman α forests. As a result, if the IGM grain size is & 100 Å, the dust-gas mass ratio of the IGM at z & 2 is . 1/100 Gal...

Galactic Winds in the Intergalactic Medium

We have performed hydrodynamical simulations to investigate the effects of galactic winds on the high-redshift (z = 3) universe. Strong winds suppress the formation of low-mass galaxies significantly, and the metals carried by them produce C IV absorption lines with properties in reasonable agreement with observations. The winds have little effect on the statistics of the H I-absorption lines, ...

Cosmological Blastwaves and the Intergalactic Medium

Winds from protogalactic starbursts and quasars can drive shocks that heat, ionize, and enrich the intergalactic medium. The Sedov-Taylor solution for point-like explosions adequately describes these blastwaves early in their development, but as the time since the explosion (t − t1) approaches the age of the universe (t), cosmological effects begin to alter the blastwave’s structure and growth ...