Lyman-alpha as an Astrophysical and Cosmological Tool

Editors: Dr. Anne Verhamme is Senior Research Assistant at the Astronomical Department of the University of Geneva and Associated Researcher at CRAL, Lyon. She works on spectral diagnostics to study the escape of ionising photons and gas flows around galaxies, at the interface between simulations (coupling her radiation transfer code with radiation hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation) and observations (as a member of the MUSE consortium, and the LARS collaboration). She currently works on new indirect methods to probe the escape of ionising photons from the sources of cosmic reionisation, in particular from their Lyman-alpha properties (spectral shape and/or extend of their Lya halos), with a newly developed radiation transfer code, RASCAS, efficiently parallelised, and interfaced with state-of-the-art radiation hydrodynamic (RHD) simulations of galaxy formation. She obtained her PhD degree in Astronomy at the University of Geneva in 2008, working on Lyman-alpha radiation transfer effects in galaxies. In 2009, she was an SNF fellow at the Astrophysics department of Oxford University, and from 2010 to 2012, she was a Marie Curie fellow at CRAL, in Lyon, to compute the Lyman-alpha properties of virtual galaxies. Since Sept 2012, she returned to the University of Geneva (Excellence Fellow of the University of Geneva for 3 years, and "Marie Heim Vogtlin" SNF Fellow). Dr. Pierre North is senior researcher and lecturer at the Laboratory of Astrophysics of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He obtained his PhD degree in astronomy and astrophysics in 1984 at Geneva University. He worked on chemically peculiar stars, especially on the evolution of the angular momentum of magnetic Ap and Bp stars. He studied the rate and properties of binaries among this type of stars, and also determined the orbital and spectral properties of Ba dwarfs, to the discovery of which he contributed. He used astrometric and eclipsing binary systems to determine the distance of stellar systems like the Pleiades and the Small Magellanic Cloud, and to put constraints on stellar models. His research interests focus now on Lyman-alpha emitting nebulae around quasars, and on the chemical history of dwarf spheroidal galaxies and of the Milky Way outer halo through analysis of stellar spectra.

Physics of Lya Radiative Transfer.- HI Absorption in the Intergalactic Medium.- Observations of Lya Emitters at High Redshift.- Lyman alpha Emission and Absorption in Local Galaxies.- Index.