Institute for Advanced Study/Princeton University Early Universe/Cosmology Lunch Discussion

The aggregate light emitted by all extragalactic sources can be measured either as an absolute intensity or through its spatial fluctuations; these are known as line-intensity mapping (LIM) when a particular line transition is targeted. I will discuss how absolute intensity measurements can be used both to learn about galaxy evolution and to investigate the presence of more speculative sources of radiation, such as decaying dark matter. I will then discuss how the unique characteristics of intensity mapping measurements (e.g. wide redshift coverage, sensitivity to faint sources, and mapping speed) may enable a variety of scientific goals and some of the challenges in realizing them, along with a numerical framework to model LIM within the broader context of probes of large-scale structure.