In these proceedings we discuss advances in the theory and observation of magnetic fields in the intergalactic medium and in the cosmic web. We make the point that, despite perhaps unsurmountable obstacles in simulating a small-scale dynamo, currently most cosmological magnetohydrodynamical simulations paint a similar picture of magnetic field amplification in the cosmos. However, observations of magnetic fields in the intergalactic medium turn out to be very difficult. As a case in point, we present recent work on Faraday rotation measurement in the direction of a giant galaxy with the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR). These observations demonstrate the currently unique capability of LOFAR to measure Faraday rotation at the high accuracy and angular resolution required to investigate the magnetisation of large-scale structure filaments of the cosmic web.

We present 21 cm (L-band) JVLA observations of the Perseus Cluster, comprising data from all four array configurations. The resulting images are nearly an order of magnitude deeper than any other image made of NGC 1275 and its environs at this frequency.

We studied the imprints that feedback from Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) leaves on the intracluster plasma during the assembly history of galaxy clusters. To this purpose we used state-of-the-art cosmological hydrodynamical simulations based on an updated version of the Tree-PM SPH GADGET-3 code, comparing three sets of simulations with different prescriptions for the physics of baryons (including AGN and/or stellar feedback). We explore the effect of these different physics, in particular AGN feedback, on IntraCluster medium (ICM) properties observed via Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) effect using an extended set of galaxy clusters (~100 clusters with M500 masses above 5 × 1013M⊙/h). Some of the main findings are that the scaling relation between the integrated SZ flux and the galaxy cluster total mass is in good accordance with several observed samples, especially for massive clusters, and does not show any clear redshift evolution, with the slope of the relation close to the theoretical one in the AGN feedback case. As for the scatter of this relation, we obtain a mild dependence on the cluster dynamical state.

In order to understand the origin of the decreased star formation rate (SFR) efficiency of neutral atomic hydrogen gas measured in Damped Lyα Systems (DLAs) at z ~ 3, we measure the SFR efficiency of atomic gas at z ~ 1, z ~ 2, and z ~ 3 around star-forming galaxies. We create galaxy stacks in these three redshift bins, and measure the SFR efficiency by combining DLA absorber statistics with the observed rest-frame UV emission in the galaxies’ outskirts. We find that the SFR efficiency of Hi gas is ~ 3% of that predicted by the KS relation. We find no significant evolution in the SFR efficiency with redshift, although simulations and models predict a decreasing SFR efficiency with decreasing metallicity and thus with increasing redshift. We discuss possible explanations for this decreased efficiency without an evolution with redshift.

Gas and dust grains are fundamental components of the interstellar medium and significantly impact many of the physical processes driving galaxy evolution, such as star-formation, and the heating, cooling, and ionization of the interstellar material. Quasar absorption systems (QASs), which trace intervening galaxies along the sightlines to luminous quasars, provide a valuable tool to directly study the properties of the interstellar gas and dust in distant, normal galaxies. We have established the presence of silicate dust grains in at least some gas-rich QASs, and find that they exist at higher optical depths than expected for diffuse gas in the Milky Way. Differences in the absorption feature shapes additionally suggest variations in the silicate dust grain properties, such as in the level of grain crystallinity, from system-to-system. We present results from a study of the gas and dust properties of QASs with adequate archival IR data to probe the silicate dust grain properties. We discuss our measurements of the strengths of the 10 and 18 μm silicate dust absorption features in the QASs, and constraints on the grain properties (e.g., composition, shape, crystallinity) based on fitted silicate profile templates. We investigate correlations between silicate dust abundance, reddening, and gas metallicity, which will yield valuable insights into the history of star formation and chemical enrichment in galaxies.

Type 2 QSOs (QSO2s) are intrinsically luminous QSOs embedded in dusty environments. In this work, we study the radio, optical, and soft X-ray properties of 887 optically selected [O III]-based QSO2s (Reyes et al. 2008) at z<0.83 to investigate the connection between QSO2s and their environments. We use SDSS data to measure the luminosity-limited galaxy counts in a volume centered on each QSO2 and defined by Δ z<0.1 (based on photometric redshifts) and within a projected distance of 1.5 Mpc of the QSO2 (δ1.5Mpc). We used ROSAT All Sky Survey (RASS) data to estimate the X-ray excess. Hsu & Chen (2010), after correcting for Galactic absorption, obtain a lower limit for the intrinsic neutral hydrogen column density (NH) toward each of the QSO2s. About 50% of these sources have NH > 1022 cm−2. We take this value as a threshold to subdivide QSO2s into high- and low-NH groups, and compare their environments. The distributions δ1.5Mpc of the two populations show that, in regions of higher galaxy density, QSO2s are dominated by the high-NH population (Figure 1), suggesting a closer connection between more obscured QSO2s and surrounding galaxies.

We present the results of a multiwavelength campaign searching for young objects in the intragroup medium of seven compact groups of galaxies: HCG 2, 7, 22, 23, 92, 100 and NGC 92. We used Fabry-Perot velocity fields and rotation curves together with GALEX NUV and FUV images, optical R-band and HI maps to evaluate the stage of interaction of each group. We conclude that groups (i) HCG 7 and HCG 23 are in an early stage of interaction, (ii) HCG 2 and HCG 22 are mildly interacting, and (iii) HCG 92, HCG 100 and NGC 92 are in a late stage of evolution. Evolved groups have a population of young objects in their intragroup medium while no such population is found within the less evolved groups. We also report the discovery of a tidal dwarf galaxy candidate in the tail of NGC 92. These three groups, besides containing galaxies which have peculiar velocity fields, also show extended HI tails. Our results indicate that the advanced stage of evolution of a group together with the presence of intragroup HI clouds may lead to star formation in the intragroup medium.

We compute the luminosity function (LF) and the formation rate of long gamma ray bursts (GRBs) in three different scenarios: i) GRBs follow the cosmic star formation and their LF is constant in time; ii) GRBs follow the cosmic star formation but the LF varies with redshift; iii) GRBs form preferentially in low–metallicity environments. We then test model predictions against the Swift 3-year data, showing that scenario i) is robustly ruled out. Moreover, we show that the number of bright GRBs detected by Swift suggests that GRBs should have experienced some sort of luminosity evolution with redshift, being more luminous in the past. Finally we propose to use the observations of the afterglow spectrum of GRBs at z ≥ 5.5 to constrain the reionization history, and then applied our method to the case of GRB 050904.

I review the present understanding of the process by which the universe has been enriched in the course of its history with heavy elements produced by stars and transported into the surrounding intergalactic medium. This process goes under the name of “cosmic metal enrichment” and presents some of the most challenging puzzles in present day physical cosmology. These are reviewed along with some proposed explanations that all together form a coherent working scenario.

A complementary method to the emission selection of high-redshift galaxies consists in the observation of absorbers along the line of sight toward a background quasar. This selection technique has a constant sensitivity at all redshifts up to z = 6 (i.e. no redshift desert) and allow to select all types of galaxies regardless of their luminosity or star formation rate. The highest column density absorbers, the Damped Lyman-α (DLAs) systems, in particular, can be used to determine the cosmic evolution of HI gas in the Universe, ΩHI, and the global metallicity in the gas phase. Since stars are known to form from HI gas, ΩHI provides an indirect tracer of the history of star formation. Recent results from several parallel VLT programmes aiming at determining the cosmological evolution of the metallicity in the neutral gas phase are presented.