Lyman-alpha forest power spectrum as an emerging window into the epoch of reionization and cosmic dawn
Date:
The memory of reionization in the Lya forest was recently shown to survive to lower redshifts than previously thought (z~2). This unconventional result originated from carefully tracking the small-scale structure to below jean mass prior to reionization with high-resolution simulations. As a result, one is able to track the HEMD (High-Entropy, Mean-Density) gas in mini-voids, which takes cosmological timescales to relax into the usual-temperature density relation of the IGM. Here, I will show how the memory of inhomogeneous reionization in the Lya forest power spectra — currently a broadband systematic effect for the Lya forest community- could potentially become a window into the Epoch of Reionization.