English

Estimation of the temperature-density relation in the intergalactic medium at $\mathbf{z\sim 2-4}$ via Ly$\mathbf{\alpha}$ forest

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics 2019-04-02 v1

Abstract

Quasar spectra provide a unique opportunity to investigate the intergalactic medium at high redshifts. The spectral analysis of the Lyα\alpha forest allows us to constrain the effective equation of state of the intergalactic medium and its changes during the evolution of the Universe. Based on the Voigt profile fitting of Lyα\alpha forest lines in 50 high-resolution QSO spectra obtained at Keck telescope we present new measurements of the power-law index γ\gamma of temperature-density relation in IGM for six redshift bins in the range z=1.63.7z=1.6-3.7. We find that the IGM state is close to isothermal (γ1\gamma\approx 1) at z3z\sim 3 which may indicate that HeII reionization occurred at this redshift.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1806.01319,
  title  = {Estimation of the temperature-density relation in the intergalactic medium at $\mathbf{z\sim 2-4}$ via Ly$\mathbf{\alpha}$ forest},
  author = {K N Telikova and S A Balashev and P S Shternin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1806.01319},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

6 pages, 2 figures, 1 table; submitted to the International Conference PhysicA.SPb/2018, Saint Petersburg, Russia, October 23-25, 2018