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381. Ly{alpha} candidates from a MUSE survey of 6 AGNs
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/859/53
Title:
Ly{alpha} candidates from a MUSE survey of 6 AGNs
Short Name:
J/ApJ/859/53
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
Recent theoretical models suggest that the early phase of galaxy formation could involve an epoch when galaxies are gas rich but inefficient at forming stars: a "dark galaxy" phase. Here, we report the results of our Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) survey for dark galaxies fluorescently illuminated by quasars at z>3. Compared to previous studies which are based on deep narrowband (NB) imaging, our integral field survey provides a nearly uniform sensitivity coverage over a large volume in redshift space around the quasars as well as full spectral information at each location. Thanks to these unique features, we are able to build control samples at large redshift distances from the quasars using the same data taken under the same conditions. By comparing the rest-frame equivalent width (EW0) distributions of the Ly{alpha} sources detected in proximity to the quasars and in control samples, we detect a clear correlation between the locations of high-EW0 objects and the quasars. This correlation is not seen in other properties, such as Ly{alpha} luminosities or volume overdensities, suggesting the possible fluorescent nature of at least some of these objects. Among these, we find six sources without continuum counterparts and EW0 limits larger than 240{AA} that are the best candidates for dark galaxies in our survey at z>3.5. The volume densities and properties, including inferred gas masses and star formation efficiencies, of these dark galaxy candidates are similar to those of previously detected candidates at z~2.4 in NB surveys. Moreover, if the most distant of these are fluorescently illuminated by the quasar, our results also provide a lower limit of t=60Myr on the quasar lifetime.
382. Ly{alpha} forest power spectrum at 1.8<=z<=3.4
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/852/22
Title:
Ly{alpha} forest power spectrum at 1.8<=z<=3.4
Short Name:
J/ApJ/852/22
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
We present a new measurement of the Ly{alpha} forest power spectrum at 1.8<z<3.4 using 74 Keck/HIRES and VLT/UVES high-resolution, high-signal-to-noise-ratio quasar spectra. We developed a custom pipeline to measure the power spectrum and its uncertainty, which fully accounts for finite resolution and noise and corrects for the bias induced by masking missing data, damped Ly{alpha} absorption systems, and metal absorption lines. Our measurement results in unprecedented precision on the small-scale modes k>0.02s/km, inaccessible to previous SDSS/BOSS analyses. It is well known that these high-k modes are highly sensitive to the thermal state of the intergalactic medium, but contamination by narrow metal lines is a significant concern. We quantify the effect of metals on the small- scale power and find a modest effect on modes with k<0.1s/km. As a result, by masking metals and restricting to k<0.1s/km, their impact is completely mitigated. We present an end-to-end Bayesian forward-modeling framework whereby mock spectra with the same noise, resolution, and masking as our data are generated from Ly{alpha} forest simulations. These mock spectra are used to build a custom emulator, enabling us to interpolate between a sparse grid of models and perform Markov chain Monte Carlo fits. Our results agree well with BOSS on scales k<0.02s/km, where the measurements overlap. The combination of the percent-level low-k precision of BOSS with our 5%-15% high-k measurements results in a powerful new data set for precisely constraining the thermal history of the intergalactic medium, cosmological parameters, and the nature of dark matter.
383. Lyman alpha absorbers in 0.5<z<1.9 QSOs
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/458/427
Title:
Lyman alpha absorbers in 0.5<z<1.9 QSOs
Short Name:
J/A+A/458/427
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
We investigate the evolution and the statistical properties of the Ly{alpha} absorbers of the intergalactic medium (IGM) in the largely unexplored redshift range z=0.5-1.9. We use high-resolution (R>=30000) UV (STIS) and optical (VLT/UVES and Keck/HIRES) spectra of nine bright quasars with z_em_<1.94. The Ly{alpha} lines detected in the lines of sight (LOS) towards these quasars are evaluated with a software package which determines simultaneously the quasar continuum and the line profiles.
384. Lyman{alpha} emitting galaxies at z=2.38
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/614/75
Title:
Lyman{alpha} emitting galaxies at z=2.38
Short Name:
J/ApJ/614/75
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
In Paper 1 (Palunas et al., 2004ApJ...602..545P) of this series we identified an 80 comoving Mpc filament of candidate Ly{alpha}-emitting galaxies at redshift 2.38. In this paper we present spectroscopy of the 37 galaxy candidates. Our spectroscopy reached a surface brightness limit of 5.0x10^-17^erg/cm^2^/s/arcsec^2^. Of the 14 candidates down to this limit, 12 were confirmed to be Ly{alpha}-emitting galaxies at the filament redshift. We also obtained spectral confirmation for six of the lower surface brightness candidates, all of which also lay at the filament redshift. In addition, we identify a foreground cluster of QSOs at z=1.65.
385. Lyman{alpha} forest in QSO pairs
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/391/1457
Title:
Lyman{alpha} forest in QSO pairs
Short Name:
J/MNRAS/391/1457
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
We look for signs of the HI transverse proximity effect in the spectra of 130 quasi-stellar object (QSO) pairs, most with transverse separations in the plane of the sky of 0.1-3Mpc at z~2.2. We expected to see a decrease in Ly{alpha} forest HI absorption in the spectrum of background QSOs near the position of foreground QSOs. Instead, we see no change in the absorption in front of the foreground QSOs, and we see evidence for a 50 per cent increase in the absorption out to 6Mpc behind the foreground QSOs. Further, we see no change in the HI absorption along the line-of-sight to the foreground QSOs, the normal line-of-sight proximity effect. We may account for the lack of change in the HI absorption if the effect of extra ultraviolet photons is cancelled by higher gas density around QSOs. If so, the increase in absorption behind the QSOs then suggests that the higher gas density there is not cancelled by the UV radiation from the QSOs. We can explain our observations if QSOs have had their current UV luminosities for less than approximately a million years, a time-scale that has been suggested for accretion disc instabilities and gas depletion.
386. Lyman-alpha forest of 5 QSOs
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/335/555
Title:
Lyman-alpha forest of 5 QSOs
Short Name:
J/MNRAS/335/555
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
Combining a new, increased data set of eight quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) covering the Ly{alpha} forest at redshifts 1.5<z<3.6 from VLT/UVES observations with previously published results, we have investigated the properties of the Ly{alpha} forest at 1.5<z<4. With the six QSOs covering the Ly{alpha} forest at 1.5<z<2.5, we have extended previous studies in this redshift range. In particular, we have concentrated on the evolution of the line number density and the clustering of the Ly{alpha} forest at z<=2.5, where the Ly{alpha} forest starts to show some inhomogeneity from sightline to sightline. We have fitted Voigt profiles to the Ly{alpha} absorption lines as in previous studies, and have, for two QSOs with z_em_~2.4, fitted Ly{alpha} and higher order of Lyman lines down to 3050{AA} simultaneously. This latter approach has been taken in order to study the Ly{beta} forest at z~2.2 and the higher H I column density Ly{alpha} forest in the Ly{beta} forest region.
387. Lyman alpha forest of 55 QSOs
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/662/72
Title:
Lyman alpha forest of 55 QSOs
Short Name:
J/ApJ/662/72
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
We examine the evolution of the IGM Ly{alpha} optical depth distribution using the transmitted flux probability distribution function (PDF) in a high-resolution sample of 55 QSOs spanning absorption redshifts 1.7<z<5.8. The data are compared to two theoretical {tau} distributions: a model distribution based on the density distribution of Miralda-Escude et al. (2000ApJ...530....1M; MHR00) and a lognormal distribution.
388. Lyman-alpha forest toward PKS 0405-123
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/636/631
Title:
Lyman-alpha forest toward PKS 0405-123
Short Name:
J/ApJ/636/631
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
We present results for Ly{alpha} forest and metal absorbers from ~7km/s resolution Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) data for QSO PKS 0405-123 (z=0.574). We analyze strong and weak samples of Ly{alpha} forest lines, containing 60 absorbers with column density log N(HI)>=13.3 over 0.002<z<0.423 and 44 with logN(HI)>=13.1 over 0.020<z<0.234, respectively.
389. Lyman cont. luminosity of SDSS quasar pairs at z~3
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/884/151
Title:
Lyman cont. luminosity of SDSS quasar pairs at z~3
Short Name:
J/ApJ/884/151
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
We have used spectra of 181 projected quasar pairs at separations <=1.5' from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 12 in the redshift range of 2.5-3.5 to probe the proximity regions of the foreground quasars. We study the proximity effect both in the longitudinal and in the transverse directions, by carrying out a comparison of the Ly{alpha} absorption lines originating from the vicinity of quasars to those originating from the general intergalactic medium at the same redshift. We found an enhancement in the transmitted flux within 4Mpc to the quasar in the longitudinal direction. However, the trend is found to be reversed in the transverse direction. In the longitudinal direction, we derived an excess overdensity profile showing an excess up to r<=5Mpc after correcting for the quasar's ionization, taking into account the effect of low spectral resolution. This excess overdensity profile matches with the average overdensity profile in the transverse direction without applying any correction for the effect of the quasar's ionization. Among various possible interpretations, we found that the anisotropic obscuration of the quasar's ionization seems to be the most probable explanation. This is also supported by the fact that all of our foreground quasars happen to be type 1 AGNs. Finally, we constrain the average quasar's illumination along the transverse direction as compared to that along the longitudinal direction to be <=27% (3{sigma} confidence level).
390. Lyman limit absorption systems in z~3 QSOs
ID:
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/775/78
Title:
Lyman limit absorption systems in z~3 QSOs
Short Name:
J/ApJ/775/78
Date:
21 Oct 2021
Publisher:
CDS
Description:
We present the results of a blind survey of Lyman limit systems (LLSs) detected in absorption against 105 quasars at z~3 using the blue sensitive MagE spectrograph at the Magellan Clay telescope. By searching for Lyman limit absorption in the wavelength range {lambda}~3000-4000{AA}, we measure the number of LLSs per unit redshift {ell}(z)=1.21+/-0.28 at z~2.8. Using a stacking analysis, we further estimate the mean free path of ionizing photons in the z~3 universe {lambda}_mfp_^912^=100+/-29h_70.4_^-1^Mpc. Combined with our LLS survey, we conclude that systems with logN_HI_>=17.5/cm2 contribute only ~40% to the observed mean free path at these redshifts. Furthermore, with the aid of photoionization modeling, we infer that a population of ionized and metal poor systems is likely required to reproduce the metal line strengths observed in a composite spectrum of 20 LLSs with log N_HI_~17.5-19/cm2 at z~2.6-3.0. Finally, with a simple toy model, we deduce that gas in the halos of galaxies can alone account for the totality of LLSs at z<~3, but a progressively higher contribution from the intergalactic medium is required beyond z~3.5. We also show how the weakly evolving number of LLSs per unit redshift at z<~3 can be modeled either by requiring that the spatial extent of the circumgalactic medium is redshift invariant in the last ~10Gyr of cosmic evolution or by postulating that LLSs arise in halos that are rare fluctuations in the density field at each redshift.