History of the Intergalactic Medium Thermal History
I have always found the thermal history of the intergalactic medium to be very appealing as we think it is shaped by relatively simple physics pertaining to gas heating and cooling. The thermal history can also be precisely constrained with observations of the Lyman-alpha forest. In my decade+ working on this topic, these constraints have gotten much more precise. I didn't anticipate that there would be several interesting theoretical developments too. While much of this talk will be featuring the past decade of developments on this topic, I will also present an exciting new development. Namely, the photo-evaporative heating from reionization may drive the entire IGM to turbulence, as it does in some of our highest-resolution simulations. If this happens, it should grow magnetic fields everywhere, explaining the lower limits on intergalactic magnetic fields from TeV Blazars.
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