Colloquium on Apr. 24th, 2019

Probing Hot Circumgalactic and Intergalactic Gas with High-Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy

Speaker: Wei Cui (Tsinghua University)

Venue: Room 2317, SWIFAR Building

Time: 2:00 PM, Wednesday, 24th April, 2019

Abstract: 

The lack of understanding of the distribution and properties of “missing” baryons (in the universe or locally in the galaxies) is impeding the progress in advancing the theory of galaxy formation and evolution. The bulk of such baryons may be exist in the form of hot, extended halos around galaxies (CGM) and/or filamentary structures in the cosmic web (IGM); recent observations seem to support such scenarios. However, due to the lack of a sensitive probe, the physical and chemical properties of hot CGM/IGM are poorly measured but carry critical information on the feedback processes that are important to galaxy evolution. Theory is far ahead of observation in this area. I will describe how to make progress observationally, and a mission concept that implements the required capabilities.