Competition between Pressure and Gravity Confinement in Lyman-Alpha Forest Observations

A break in the distribution function of Ly$\alpha$ clouds (at a typical redshift of $2.5$) has been reported by Petitjean et al. (1993). This feature is what would be expected from a transition between pressure confinement and gravity confinement (as predicted in Charlton, Salpeter, and Hogan (1993)). The column density at which the feature occurs has been used to determine the external confining pressure, $\sim 10 {\rm cm}^{-3} {\rm K}$, which could be due to a hot, intergalactic medium. For models that provide a good fit to the data, the contribution of the gas in clouds to $\Omega$ is small. The specific shape of the distribution function at the transition (predicted by models to have a non-monotonic slope) can serve as a diagnostic of the distribution of dark matter around Ly$\alpha$ forest clouds, and the present data already eliminate certain models.