ASTRODEBATA / Vid Iršič: The High-Redshift Cosmic Web

The High-Redshift Cosmic Web

Vid Iršič
IFPU, Trst

The wealth of data from large galaxy surveys has transformed how we view precision cosmology in the last decade. New observations of the high redshift Universe by JWST, continue to challenge our understanding of the early stages of galaxy formation and evolution. The high-redshift cosmic web lies in between, spanning the period of the history of the Universe from the era of reionization to the peak of the star formation history. The filamentary structure of the cosmic web, in these early stage of non-linear gravitational collapse, is dominated by the stuff between newly forming galaxies -- the intergalactic medium (IGM). In this talk I will review one of the main observational features of the IGM, the Lyman-alpha forest, in the context of pushing the frontiers of our understanding of the nature of dark matter, expansion history of the Universe and growth of structure and galaxy formation.