First results from the THESAN project: predictions for multi-tracer line intensity mapping in the epoch of reionization
Rahul Kannan (Harvard & Smithsonian)
Tuesday 15/02/2022 @ 14:00, Remote talk
Current and upcoming facilities like JWST, ALMA, HERA, SPHEREx etc., will unleash a flood of high redshift observational data that will usher the study of the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) into a new era, making it the next big frontier in cosmological structure formation. It is therefore important for theoretical models to achieve sufficient accuracy and physical fidelity to meaningfully interpret these observational results. This requires a realistic description of galaxy formation in an evolving radiation field. In this talk, I will introduce the THESAN simulation project that couples state-of-the-art galaxy formation models with accurate radiative transfer, dust, and non-equilibrium thermochemistry. The suite consists of large volume (~100 Mpc), high resolution (~10 pc) simulations designed to simultaneously model the large-scale statistical properties of the intergalactic medium (IGM) during reionization and the resolved characteristics of the galaxies responsible for it. I will briefly discuss applications from the first set of papers, including predictions for high redshift galaxy properties and the emergence of the Lyman-alpha forest. I will finish by highlighting the potential of using Line intensity mapping of spectral lines originating from the interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies and the 21 cm emission from the neutral hydrogen gas in the Universe to accurately characterize the sources that dominate the ionizing photon budget.