Event details

Date
January 11, 2027  – January 15, 2027
Location
Sport & Kurhotel at Bad Moos - Via Val Fiscalina 27, 39030, Sexten

Scientific Rationale

The birth of the first stars, galaxies and black holes heralded the end of the cosmic Dark Ages, ushering in the Cosmic Dawn. Light from these objects spread out, heating and ionizing virtually every baryon in our Universe. This Epoch of Reionization (EoR) was the last major phase change of our Universe, encoding a wealth of information about the unseen first galaxies and structures in the intergalactic medium (IGM). Despite spanning the majority of our visible Universe, the EoR has only recently begun to be explored. We now have many observational clues of the EoR, including from: (i) the opacity of the Lyman alpha and beta forests; (ii) damping wing imprints in QSO spectra; (iii) evolution of Lyman alpha emitting galaxies; (iv) clustering of Lyman alpha emitters; (v) CMB polarization power spectra; (vi) the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel’Dovich effect in CMB temperature fluctuations; (vii) the cosmic 21-cm signal. However, interpreting these observations is challenging, requiring careful modeling of both the cosmic signal as well as associated systematics.

This workshop is a sequel to the extremely successful ones in 2023 and 2025. In recent years, our sample of high redshift, high signal to noise quasar spectra has increased dramatically, datasets from JWST concerning high redshift galaxies and black holes are showing an abundant population of bright objects, and we demonstrated the heating of the IGM heating during the cosmic dawn implied by upper limits on the 21-cm power spectrum.

In these exciting times, we wish to bring together the scientific community studying the EoR to discuss how best to interpret current observations and how we should design future ones. We will try to put together the pieces of the puzzle of reionization. What was the timing of the EoR? What sources were responsible? How did they interact with themselves and their surroundings through feedback mechanisms? What are the associated observational signatures? What was the role of IGM structures / photon sinks? How can we improve models of the EoR? How do we best build forward models, accounting for relevant theoretical and observational systematics? Where are the next observational breakthroughs? How do we best prepare for upcoming data from transformational telescopes like JWST, SKA, and ELT? Understanding the epoch of cosmic Reionization III.

We expect around 40 participants, by invitation only. These will span experts in observations, theory, as well as data science; breakthroughs in understanding require synergy between all three of these aspects.

Organizers

SOC
Andrei Mesinger (chair), SNS, Pisa
Laura Pentericci, INAF – OAR, Rome
Matteo Viel, SISSA, Trieste
Gianni Bernardi, INAF – IRA, Bologna
Valentina D’Odorico, INAF – OAT, Trieste

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Payment details

Registration Fee
350 Eur
Workshop code for bus and payment
UND27