Evolution of the Intergalactic Medium

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AST-0507521CenIt is well established that gravitational instability is the dominant force driving the formation of baryonic structures. However, feedback processes on the intergalactic medium (IGM) from star formation are not well understood, although observationally the phenomenon of galactic super-winds (GSW) is common in both low redshift starburst galaxies and high redshift Lyman break galaxies. Lack of an adequate treatment of GSW and other important physical processes in cosmological hydrodynamic simulations hampers a full understanding of the evolution of the IGM. This research will carry out adaptive mesh refinement hydrodynamic simulations with all likely relevant physical processes carefully treated, to compute more precisely the evolution of the IGM, and specifically, the warm-hot IGM (WHIM) at low redshift and the Lyman alpha forest at moderate redshift. This will produce a detailed characterization of the distribution of the WHIM, allowing future observational determination of the fraction of the cosmic baryons in this state. It will also help to quantify systematic errors, again allowing future observational constraints on the matter power spectrum to be accurate enough to shed useful light on inflationary theories. This research will set up an adequate framework to interpret the vast observational database on evolution of the IGM, in a physically self-consistent fashion.Broader impacts of this work include continuing an effective outreach program to the general public, using visualizations presented through effective channels, such as at the Rose-Hayden Planetarium of the American Museum of Natural History, and public television programs such as Nova.