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Because the same massive stars that reionized the intergalactic medium (IGM)inevitably exploded as supernovae that polluted the Universe with metals, thehistory of cosmic reionization and enrichment are intimately intertwined. Whilethe overly sensitive Ly-alpha transition completely saturates in a neutral IGM,strong low-ionization metal lines like the MgII 2796,2804 doublet will giverise to a detectable `metal-line forest' if the metals produced duringreionization (Z ~ 10^{-3}Z_sol) permeate the neutral IGM. We simulate the MgIIforest for the first time by combining a large hydrodynamical simulation with asemi-numerical reionization topology, assuming a simple enrichment model wherethe IGM is uniformly suffused with metals. In contrast to the traditionalapproach of identifying discrete absorbers, we treat the absorption as acontinuous random field and measure its two-point correlation function,leveraging techniques from precision cosmology. We show that a realistic mockdataset of 10 JWST spectra can simultaneously determine the Mg abundance,[Mg/H], with a 1sigma precision of 0.02 dex and measure the global neutralfraction <x_HI> to 5% for a Universe with <x_HI> = 0.74 and [Mg/H] = -3.7.Alternatively, if the IGM is pristine, a null-detection of the MgII forestwould set a stringent upper limit on the IGM metallicity of [Mg/H] < -4.4 at95% credibility, assuming <x_HI> > 0.5 from another probe. Concentrations ofmetals in the circumgalactic environs of galaxies can significantly contaminatethe IGM signal, but we demonstrate how these discrete absorbers can be easilyidentified and masked such that their impact on the correlation function isnegligible. The MgII forest thus has tremendous potential to preciselyconstrain the reionization and enrichment history of the Universe.

Probing Reionization and Early Cosmic Enrichment with the MgII Forest