Scientific Rationale

The circumgalactic medium (CGM) encodes information on how galaxies acquire, lose, and recycle their gas. It thus plays a key role in our understanding of how galaxies evolve. Moreover, being at the interface between a galaxy and its surrounding environment, the CGM acts as a nodal point where both the internal and external mechanisms that regulate galaxy evolution meet.

Recent advancements in imaging and spectroscopic surveys from the ground and in space, as well as in numerical simulations, have led to significant progress in measuring the physical parameters and the structure of the CGM, also allowing us to trace its formation history. As in a hierarchical universe both internal and external processes operate simultaneously, it is becoming apparent that we must trace the interplay between the CGM and galaxies not only with cosmic time, but also in the context of the surrounding large-scale environment.

This task is far from trivial and requires interdisciplinary collaborations. This conference will bring together experts in the study of the CGM and galaxy environment both from an observational and a theoretical point of view. Through close interactions across these fields, we aim to understand how the major physical processes occurring inside galaxies, in the CGM, and within the large-scale environment intertwine to regulate the formation of cosmic structures across time.

In particular, we aim to address the following key questions:

1. What is the interplay between the CGM and galaxies as a function of redshift?

2. How does the galaxy environment influence the properties and the evolution of the multiphase CGM?

3. What is the impact of the CGM and surrounding environment on the future (star formation / nuclear) activity of galaxies?