18th Potsdam Thinkshop

Finding the circumgalactic medium in the Lyman-alpha forest

Not scheduled

20m

Conference Room, Maria-Margaretha-Kirch building (Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam (AIP))

Talk Circumgalactic medium and multiphase gas

Speaker

Duarte Muñoz Santos (Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille)

Description

Studying the circumgalactic medium (CGM) is a challenge, particularly at the key epoch prior to Cosmic Noon ($z > 2$), where galaxies samples remain very small. However, there is an abundance of Lyman-alpha forest data that contain a wealth of information about the conditions present in this medium.

Morrison et al (2024) showed that a new class of CGM absorption should be studied: Strong Blended Lyman-alpha (SBLA) absorbers. We explore the nature of the relationship between strong blends of Lyman-alpha absorption and halos using the TNG50 simulation. In doing so we have extended and generalized the identification of halos in the forest. We show that we are able to transform the Lyman-alpha forest into a powerful halo finding machine for not only identifying CGM regions but also estimating their host halo masses.