"Unveiling cosmic dawn"

Abstract:  Cosmic Dawn and the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) are some of the least explored stages of cosmic history. The faint 21-cm signal of hydrogen atoms in the intergalactic medium provides a unique way to probe these epochs by constraining the thermal and ionization history of the Universe. Once this signal is robustly measured, it will inform us about the early populations of stars, galaxies and black holes. In my talk I will discuss the recent advances in the field of observational and theoretical 21-cm cosmology.

 

"The calm before the storm: from clouds to protoplanetary disks"

Abstract: All the ingredients to form stars, planets and life are to be found in dense and cold interstellar clouds called pre-stellar cores. At these early stages of star formation, organic molecules thrive and dust grains grow thick icy mantles, where water and organics accumulate. Molecules are unique diagnostic tools for these regions.

Knowledge of the chemical and physical structure of pre-stellar cores is needed to provide the initial conditions in the process of star and planet formation.  This...

Read more about ITC Colloquium - Paola Caselli (MPIEP)

"The far ultra-violet background"

The diffuse far-ultraviolet (FUV) background has received considerable attention from astronomers since the seventies. The initial impetus came from the hope of detecting UV radiation from the hot intergalactic medium. The central importance of the FUV background to the physics (heating and ionization) of the diffuse atomic phases motivated the next generation of experiments.  The consensus view is that the diffuse FUV emission at high latitudes has three components: stellar FUV reflected by dust grains (diffuse... Read more about ITC Colloquium - Shri Kulkarni (Caltech)

"Testing the equivalence principle in the dark sector"

The equivalence between the inertial and gravitational mass is built-in the formulation of General Relativity as the curvature of space time. In the visible sector, the equivalence principle has been tested with extraordinary precision, but very little is known about the presence of long range fifth forces in the dark sector. In this talk I will describe how we can use cosmological data to test whether dark matter violates the equivalence principle. The Universe itself will act as a scale that measures if dark matter...

Read more about ITC Colloquium - Emanuele Castorina (University of Milano)