Physical Society Colloquium

Interview for Faculty Position

Probing the reionization of the universe with quasars

Chris Willott

Herzberg Institute

The reionization of diffuse intergalactic hydrogen is an important milestone in the evolution of the universe. It marks the epoch during which the first stars and black holes were formed. I will give a brief overview of the theory of reionization followed by a description of recent observations of high redshift quasars. I will discuss some of the novel techniques being used to determine the ionization state of the intergalactic medium from these observations. I will present first results from a large survey we are carrying out using the Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope Legacy Survey to compile the largest sample of high redshift quasars to probe the reionization of the universe.