The He II Opacity of the Lyman-alpha Forest and the Intergalactic Medium
Astrophysics
2009-10-30 v1
Abstract
Based on the empirical formulas governing the distribution of Ly-a forest absorption, we use a Monte-Carlo technique to calculate the average HeII optical depth produced by these forest lines. A substantial contribution to HeII absorption arises from extremely tenuous regions of intergalactic gas that are beyond the observational limits for HI absorption.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9711143,
title = {The He II Opacity of the Lyman-alpha Forest and the Intergalactic Medium},
author = {Wei Zheng and Arthur F. Davidsen and Gerard A. Kriss},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9711143},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
18 pages, including 4 figures To appear in A.J., February 1998