Title: Revealing the First Billion Years in the James Webb Era

Abstract: Several key questions regarding the first billion years of the universe are currently unanswered: What were the properties of the first stars and galaxies? How did the first supermassive black holes form? How and when did reionization of the intergalactic gas occur? Fortunately, instruments such as the James Webb Space Telescope and 30 meter-class ground-based telescopes will soon provide a wealth of new data probing this epoch. In this talk, I will focus on some of the theoretical predictions required to interpret these observations. First, I will discuss our group’s work on hydrodynamical cosmological simulations of the first stars and semi-analytical models of the first galaxies. I will then discuss an observational technique known as line-intensity mapping, which aims to measure cosmological large-scale structure through redshifted spectral lines. I will discuss how Lyman-alpha intensity maps measured with SPHEREx can probe the cosmic reionization history. I will also describe how high-redshift line-intensity maps can be cross correlated with JWST data to ensure astrophysical contamination has been properly removed.

Astro Colloquium and 'coffee & cookies' department gathering (3:45-4:00pm)

Please click the link to join virtually: https://psu.zoom.us/j/92637070419