Speaker
Dr
Matthew McQuinn
(UC Berkeley)
Description
I will discuss the impact of intensity fluctuations on HI and HeII Lyα forest data. This will include a summary of recent work to measure and model eta fluctuations in the z~2.5 HeII Lyα forest and its implications for the sources of the UV background. In addition, I will summarize what numerical simulations plus radiative transfer predict for the abundance of z>3 HI Lyman-limit systems, and a surprising implication of this modeling for metagalactic radiative transfer. Finally, I will say a few words about the sensitivity of 3D Lyα forest, highlighting the possibility of probing 100Mpc-scale intensity and temperature fluctuations.
