Letters of Intent received in 2019

LoI 2021-2064
Exploring the multi-wavelength manifestation of the Cosmic Web

Topics

* The circumgalactic medium as a driver of galaxy evolution
* The role of galaxy groups in structure formation
* The shocked baryons & non-equilibrium phenomena at the edge of galaxy clusters
* Turbulence and non-thermal pressure in the regions of ongoing virialization
* The chemical enrichment recipe for the diffuse intergalactic baryons
* Unveiling the rain and streams of plasma accreted from the surrounding LSS
* The emergent large-scale structures around the knots of the cosmic web
* Filling the bridges, and emptying the voids, of the large-scale structure

Rationale

Most of the Universe is invisible: 95% of its contents consist of dark matter and dark energy, which we do not yet understand. But even when it comes to the “normal” standard-model particles, we can only see the tip of the tip of the iceberg. A large fraction of the baryons have not been converted into stars, but instead reside in the hot, diffuse medium that fills extended galaxy halos, galaxy groups, galaxy clusters, and the cosmic web. The Circum-Galactic Medium (CGM), galaxy cluster outskirts, and Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM) are intimately interrelated. Like blood circulating through the human body, the chemical elements produced in stars, pumped by the energy from supernovae (SNe) and supermassive black holes (SMBH), cycle through the Universe’s large-scale structure. Metals often escape the shallow gravitational potential wells of galaxy-sized halos where they were produced; from there, they either get re-accreted into the CGM, or become mixed into the diffuse LSS filaments and are then funneled into the outskirts of galaxy clusters, the most massive knots of the cosmic web. To really connect the dots of the large-scale structure and to understand this circulation in detail we need a massive effort of the present and future ground- and space-based facilities covering the entire spectral range from X-ray to radio to explore galaxy overdensities, dark matter, and the gas phase as tracers of the Cosmic Web structure.
We propose a IAU Symposium to be hosted at Busan during the GA as a place to present, discuss and advance our knowledge on the properties of the Cosmic Web as traced through baryons at different phases and dark matter, and as reconstructed by multi-bands observations and hydrodynamical cosmological simulations.

Possible invited speakers include:
N. Werner (MTA-ELTE Lendulet Hot Universe research group, Hungary)
J. Werk (Univ Washington, USA)
F. Nicastro (INAF-OA, Roma, Italy)
J. Schaye (Leiden Univesity, The Netherlands)
N. Aghanim (SZ observations; CEA Saclay Paris, France)
N. Battaglia (SZ simulation and modeling, Cornell, US)

As editors of the contributions, we appoint
S. Ettori (INAF-OAS, Bologna, Italy)
A. Simionescu (SRON, Utrecht, The Netherlands)
N. Werner (MTA-ELTE Lendulet Hot Universe research group, Hungary)
D. Nagai (Yale University, USA)
F. Nicastro (INAF-OA, Roma, Italy)