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The First Stars and Galaxies: Challenges for the Next Decade Participants
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Talk
Title: The End of the Cosmic Dark Ages Author(s): Abraham Loeb Abstract: How did the first stars and galaxies light up in an expanding Universe that was on its way to becoming dark and lifeless? This review talk will describe the physical processes that transformed the Universe from its smooth initial state to its clumpy current state. A proper numerical simulation of the emergence of cosmic structure must cover a large dynamic range of scales in order for it to capture the heating and ionization effects of the first dwarf galaxies on cosmic gas at much larger scales. The distribution of matter can be mapped observationally either through surveys of galaxies or 21-cm emission of cosmic hydrogen. The talk will overview current theoretical work as well as planned observational programs to probe the earliest epoch of structure formation in the Universe.
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