[Moderator's note: Apologies for the delay in posting this. -P.H.]

Not long ago, we had some discussion here of reionization. I've just
seen a terrific colloquium by Steve Finkelstein on the subject. It's
available at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnDAHN3yL0Q
Some of the acronyms go by pretty fast, but I think most interested
readers can follow the basic points. Steve presents his own
preferred model, which may or may not be right, but he also
summarizes what is known for sure from observations.

Steve's preferred model is interesting. Most of the ionizing photons
come from large numbers of very low luminosity galaxies (absolute
magnitudes -12 to -13). Those galaxies are not directly observable,
but because they are low mass, they form early, and the start of
reionization is correspondingly early (around z=12 with 50% of the
volume ionized by z=9). If that's correct, it ought to be detectable
with a variety of upcoming observations, some of which he discusses.

--
Help keep our newsgroup healthy; please don't feed the trolls.
Steve Willner Phone 617-495-7123 swillner@cfa.harvard.edu Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

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