Speaker
Description
Recent results from Morrison et al (2024) have demonstrated that strong-blended Lyman-alpha (SBLA) systems are a rich resource for exploring the properties of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) at z > 2. In SDSS they reveal the global properties of 10^4 CGM systems showing cold clumps of super-solar gas on sub-parsec scales with exquisite precision.
I will introduce SBLAs to the uninitiated and review what they reveal about the circumgalactic medium. I will then provide an overview of recent progress: their use to decompose the forest into halo trees with estimated masses, the use of high-res data (HIRES and UVES), and the use of the latest large surveys (DESI and WEAVE). Finally I will present a comparison of SBLA sub-parsec properties with predictions from recent hydrodynamics simulations.
