The THESAN project: properties of the intergalactic medium and its connection to Reionization-era galaxies

Understand

The high-redshift intergalactic medium (IGM) and the primeval galaxy population are rapidly becoming the new frontier of extra-galactic astronomy.

• We investigate the IGM properties and their connection to galaxies at $z\geq5.5$ under different assumptions for the ionizing photon escape and the nature of dark matter, employing our novel THESAN radiation-hydrodynamical simulation suite, designed to provide a comprehensive picture of the emergence of galaxies in a full reionization context.
• Our simulations have realistic `late' reionization histories, match available constraints on global IGM properties and reproduce the recently-observed rapid evolution of the mean free path of ionizing photons.
• We additionally examine high-z Lyman-$\alpha$ transmission.