Related papers: Was the Universe neutral beyond redshift six?
We present a survey for metal absorption systems traced by neutral oxygen over $3.2 < z < 6.5$. Our survey uses Keck/ESI and VLT/X-Shooter spectra of 199 QSOs with redshifts up to 6.6. In total we detect 74 O I absorbers, of which 57 are…
Absorption due to HeII Ly-alpha has been detected at low resolution in the spectra of four quasars between redshifts z = 2.74-3.29. We assess these observations, giving particular attention to the radiative transfer of the ionizing…
The introduction of low-frequency radio arrays is expected to revolutionize the study of the reionization epoch. Observation of the contrast in redshifted 21cm emission between a large HII region and the surrounding neutral inter-galactic…
Observations suggest that CII was more abundant than CIV in the intergalactic medium towards the end of the hydrogen reionization epoch. This transition provides a unique opportunity to study the enrichment history of intergalactic gas and…
We report that the neutral hydrogen (HI) mass density of the Universe ($\rho_{HI}$) increases with cosmic time since $z \sim 5$, peaks at $z \sim 3$, and then decreases toward $z \sim 0$. This is the first result of Qz5, our spectroscopic…
The assembly and build-up of neutral atomic hydrogen (HI) in galaxies is one of the most fundamental processes in galaxy formation and evolution. Studying this process directly in the early universe is hindered by the weakness of the…
Lyman-$\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$) emitting galaxies are powerful tools to probe the late stages of cosmic reionization. The observed sudden drop in Ly$\alpha$ fraction at $z>6$ is often interpreted as a sign of reionization, since the…
Using a spectral stacking technique, we measure the neutral hydrogen (HI) properties of a sample of galaxies at $z < 0.11$ across 35 pointings of the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT). The radio data contains 1,895 galaxies with…
We present the discovery and subsequent spectroscopy with Gemini-North of the optical afterglow of the Swift gamma-ray burst (GRB) 140515A. The spectrum exhibits a well-detected continuum at wavelengths longer than 8915 Angs with a steep…
The sky-averaged (global) 21-cm signal is a powerful probe of the intergalactic medium (IGM) prior to the completion of reionization. However, it has so far been unclear that even in the best case scenario, in which the signal is accurately…
We have undertaken a survey for HI 21-cm absorption within the host galaxies of z ~ 1.2 - 1.5 radio sources, in the search of the cool neutral gas currently "missing" at z > 1. This deficit is believed to be due to the optical selection of…
The absorption by neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium (IGM) produces the Ly$\alpha$ forest in the spectra of quasars. The Ly$\alpha$ forest absorbers have a broad distribution of neutral hydrogen column density $N_{\rm HI}$ and…
Quasar spectra provide a unique opportunity to investigate the intergalactic medium at high redshifts. The spectral analysis of the Ly$\alpha$ forest allows us to constrain the effective equation of state of the intergalactic medium and its…
Recent observations of high redshift quasars at z~6 have finally revealed complete Gunn-Peterson absorption. However, this at best constrains the volume-weighted and mass-weighted hydrogen neutral fractions to be greater than 10^-3 and…
We use the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) archive of ultraviolet (UV) quasar spectroscopy to conduct the first blind survey for damped Ly-alpha absorbers (DLAs) at low redshift (z < 1.6). Our statistical sample includes 463 quasars with…
We investigate the possibility of constraining the ionization state of the intergalactic medium (IGM) close to the end of reionization (z ~ 6) by measuring the size of the HII regions in high-z quasars spectra. We perform a combination of…
We analyze the Ly alpha forest properties of a sample of 15 high redshift quasars lying between z = 4.42 and z = 5.75, using high signal-to-noise spectra obtained with ESI on the Keck II 10 m telescope. The distribution of transmissions in…
We study quasar proximity zones in the redshift range $5.77 \leq z \leq 6.54$ by homogeneously analyzing $34$ medium resolution spectra, encompassing both archival and newly obtained data, and exploiting recently updated systemic redshift…
The unprecedentedly bright optical afterglow of GRB 130606A located by Swift at a redshift close to the reionization era (z = 5.913) provides a new opportunity to probe the ionization status of intergalactic medium (IGM). Here we present an…
Context: Before the launch of the Swift satellite, the majority of the gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows for which Ly-alpha was redshifted into the observable spectrum showed evidence for a damped Ly-alpha absorber. This small sample…