• Kaastra, Jelle
• Nicastro, Fabrizio
• Finoguenov, Alexis

Abstract

Baryons are missing at all astronomical scales in the Universe, from galaxies to the large scales of structure formation and the Universe as a whole. Hydro-dynamical simulations for the formation of structures, tend to reconcile the different 'missing-baryon' problems and predict that most of the baryonic matter of the Universe is hiding in a hot and tenuous gaseous phase (dubbed the 'Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium, or WHIM), surrounding virialized structures and more at large in the low-redshift inter-galactic space. The only way to secure the detection of this important and highly elusive baryonic component of the Universe, to constrain its physical, chemical and dynamical states, and so to measure its cosmological mass density, is by observing the intergalactic medium with instruments characterized by large collecting areas at the energies at which these baryons are supposed to shine, the soft X-ray band, and spectral resolution sufficient to resolve the weak emission and absorption lines produced by the hot light metals (mainly C, O, Ne) in the WHIM. The X-IFU of Athena, with its 2 m2 effective area at 1 keV and its superb 2.5 eV spectral resolution, will be a powerful WHIM machine. Here I will first summarize the current state of the art and will then focus on the large impulse that Athena will provide for such a rich and still relatively unexplored field of research.

Topics

• density
• impedance spectroscopy
• phase
• simulation