Speaker
Description
In the past years, the James Web Space (JWST) telescope has reshaped significantly our compre- hension of the first billion years following the Big Bang. To the surprise of the community, JWST is unveiling a greater abundance of galaxies, in more advanced stages of evolution than predicted by current galaxy models. These new observations are improving our understanding of the Epoch of Reionization, a pivotal cosmological era when the first galaxies ionized the intergalactic medium at z>6, setting the stage for subsequent galaxy evolution. However, the physical conditions of the early universe prevent direct measurements of the fraction of ionizing photons escaping from the first galaxies, thereby hindering a comprehensive picture of the Epoch of Reionization to emerge.
To overcome the observational challenges encountered in the Early Universe, the community has been compiling and studying samples of local galaxies that serve as analogs to the galaxies respon- sible for Reionization at high redshift. These efforts have culminated in a characterization of galaxy properties linked to the emission of ionizing photons. Here, I will present the most recent results on the neutral gas properties of high-redshift analogs, and discuss what they reveal about the mecha- nisms facilitating the escape of ionizing radiation from galaxies. Furthermore, I will outline how deep, high-angular resolution observations of the 21cm line, obtained through the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) and its pathfinders, will be instrumental in fully revealing the processes driving the emission and escape of ionizing radiation from galaxies.
