enrico garaldi GMT20240926 093317 Recording 1920x1080

Four steps towards a deeper knowledge of the first billion years of the Universe
Enrico Garaldi (IFPU Trieste)
Thursday 26/09/2024 @ 11:30, Sala Antonio Sollima (IV piano Battiferro)
Within a decade, an array of observational facilities will deliver the first multi-faceted multi-wavelength picture of the dawn of structure formation. This will enable the detailed investigation of the intricate connection between the different components of the Universe, from galaxies to the diffuse inter-galactic medium. Such leap forward in observational capabilities, already started with the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, demands a comparable transformation in modeling techniques, that are currently lagging behind in accuracy. I will present my ongoing efforts to build a solid theoretical/numerical framework to investigate this period of time, overcoming the many approximations plaguing traditional simulations. In the first part if the talk, I will present one the first large cosmological radiation-magneto-hydrodynamical simulations simultaneously capturing self-consistently galaxy formation and cosmic reionization. I will highlights some of the new knowledge generated from such unique tool, in particular regarding the galaxy-IGM connection. In the second part of the talk, I will describe three ongoing efforts aimed at improving the state of the art in simulations of the infant Universe, namely: the improvement of initial conditions to obtain more statistically-sound predictions for 21cm science, disentangling numerical and physical effects and the development of a new technique to self-consistently include radiation in zoom-in simulations, that enables for the first time to reach pc-scale resolutions in individual objects while accounting for their cosmic environment during reionization.