Event Details

Edging closer towards understanding Cosmic Reionization with JWST by Dr Aayush Saxena

Abstract: Constraining the key drivers of cosmic reionization - a major phase transition in the Universe’s lifetime when the intergalactic medium (IGM) transformed from neutral to completely ionized - is a major challenge in astrophysics today. Solving this puzzle requires the knowledge of the number density of galaxies or AGN in the early Universe, the ionizing photon production rates from these sources, and crucially, the escape fraction of these photons that leak into the IGM driving reionization. HST has provided incredible insights into these key parameters over the last decades, and the successful deployment of JWST has ushered in a new era in the detailed study of high redshift galaxies and reionization, opening a new observational frontier.

In this talk, I will present the latest results measuring the ionizing photon production and escape from galaxies at high redshifts, including some of the newest results from the JWST NIRSpec/NIRCam GTO programme called JADES. I will also briefly touch upon the role played by exotic systems such as X-ray binaries, as well as AGN in massive galaxies in the early Universe in reionization.