KIPAC Seminar: Large-scale structure between peaks - modeling the intergalactic medium for the next generation of cosmological datasets

Abstract: Galaxy images and spectra are the most powerful large-scale structure datasets for mapping cosmological volumes to constrain fundamental physics. Models for galaxy clustering are now well-established, and perturbative bias descriptions provide a robust method of obtaining cosmological constraints for galaxy positions in redshift space. However, near-term datasets provide an opportunity to more completely map the cosmic web by extending such models outside of galaxies to tracers of the intergalactic medium (IGM). I will discuss my recent and current work toward such galaxy complementarity by modeling both the neutral and ionized components of the IGM through bias models, including: 1) the neutral hydrogen IGM component via environments of Lyman-alpha emitters (2.5<z<5) that will serve as the workhorse for the next generation of spectroscopic surveys (DESI extension, Spec-S5), as well as the already measured Lyman-alpha forest, and an observationally tractable compression of its bispectrum; 2) the ionized IGM component via both its momentum (through progress toward an EFT kinetic Sunyaev Zel'dovich bispectrum) and its density (via fast radio burst clustering and its cross correlation). The totality of these efforts will enable a robust mapping of IGM modes to complement existing galactic tracers of large-scale structure, thereby improving existing efforts toward precision cosmological constraints.