Description
We measure the distribution of carbon in the intergalactic medium as a function of redshift z and overdensity {delta}. Using a hydrodynamical simulation to link the H I absorption to the density and temperature of the absorbing gas, and a model for the UV background radiation, we convert ratios of C IV to H I pixel optical depths into carbon abundances. For the median metallicity this technique was described and tested in Paper I (Aguirre et al., 2002ApJ...576....1A) of this series. Here we generalize it to reconstruct the full probability distribution of the carbon abundance and apply it to 19 high-quality quasar absorption spectra.
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