Final Report Summary - EMERGENCE (The Emergence of Structure during the Epoch of Reionization)
Early on the Universe consisted of a near-uniform mixture of hydrogen, helium, dark matter and radiation. The emergence of structure from a stochastic background of fluctuations in the period between 400.000 years and 1 billion years was the main subject of this project.
We have developed sophisticated simulations of how the hydrogen in Universe progressed from substantially neutral and pristine to highly ionized and enriched with metals, the growth and environment of supermassive black holes and the seeds from which they form, as well as the impact of the distribution of energy and momentum released during the evolution of galaxies and their central supermassive black holes on the surrounding intergalactic medium.
By careful comparison with data from UKIDDS, VISTA, Planck, VLT and ALMA the project has made decisive contributions to our understanding of this exciting period in the history of the Universe. Work undertaken as part of the project has significantly contributed to the ensuing consensus that hydrogen reionization is occurring later and probably more rapidly than had been suggested in particularly by the early WMAP data.
A major breakthrough of the project was the successful modelling of the large observed opacity fluctuations of the Lyman-alpha forest at z>5 that provided convincing evidence that hydrogen reionization finished significantly later than previously thought with large "islands" of neutral hydrogen persisting to redshifts a low as z~5.3 and in excellent agreement with the constraints on the evolution on the reionization of hydrogen from our modelling of the Lyman-alpha emission from high-redshift galaxies which suggested that reionization occurs rather late with a mid-point of hydrogen reionization at z~7.
Our improved measurements of the thermal state of the post-reionization IGM have been key for our improved constraints on the free-streaming of dark matter which have provided the most robust constraints to date and have allowed us to push the limit on 'how cold' dark matter is significantly further, leaving basically no room anymore for the effect of free-streaming of dark matter on the properties of dwarf galaxies.
Our detailed simulations of the emission from the Interstellar Medium and the escape of ionizing radiation from high-redshift galaxies during the epoch of reionization should become an important stepping stone for the interpretation of the flood of data in this area expected once JWS becomes operational in 2021.
Project team members have played leading roles in four PRACE programs and two ESO Large Observing Programs, which have been competitively awarded slightly more than 100 million core hours of CPU time and more than 300 hours of observing time on the 10m class VLT telescope, respectively.
We have developed sophisticated simulations of how the hydrogen in Universe progressed from substantially neutral and pristine to highly ionized and enriched with metals, the growth and environment of supermassive black holes and the seeds from which they form, as well as the impact of the distribution of energy and momentum released during the evolution of galaxies and their central supermassive black holes on the surrounding intergalactic medium.
By careful comparison with data from UKIDDS, VISTA, Planck, VLT and ALMA the project has made decisive contributions to our understanding of this exciting period in the history of the Universe. Work undertaken as part of the project has significantly contributed to the ensuing consensus that hydrogen reionization is occurring later and probably more rapidly than had been suggested in particularly by the early WMAP data.
A major breakthrough of the project was the successful modelling of the large observed opacity fluctuations of the Lyman-alpha forest at z>5 that provided convincing evidence that hydrogen reionization finished significantly later than previously thought with large "islands" of neutral hydrogen persisting to redshifts a low as z~5.3 and in excellent agreement with the constraints on the evolution on the reionization of hydrogen from our modelling of the Lyman-alpha emission from high-redshift galaxies which suggested that reionization occurs rather late with a mid-point of hydrogen reionization at z~7.
Our improved measurements of the thermal state of the post-reionization IGM have been key for our improved constraints on the free-streaming of dark matter which have provided the most robust constraints to date and have allowed us to push the limit on 'how cold' dark matter is significantly further, leaving basically no room anymore for the effect of free-streaming of dark matter on the properties of dwarf galaxies.
Our detailed simulations of the emission from the Interstellar Medium and the escape of ionizing radiation from high-redshift galaxies during the epoch of reionization should become an important stepping stone for the interpretation of the flood of data in this area expected once JWS becomes operational in 2021.
Project team members have played leading roles in four PRACE programs and two ESO Large Observing Programs, which have been competitively awarded slightly more than 100 million core hours of CPU time and more than 300 hours of observing time on the 10m class VLT telescope, respectively.