Related papers: Spatial Correlations in the Helium-Ionizing Backgr…
We study the spatial fluctuations in the hydrogen ionizing background in the epoch following reionization (z ~ 5--6). The rapid decrease with redshift in the photon mean free path (m.f.p.), combined with the clustering of increasingly rare…
Extremely large opaque troughs in the Lyman-alpha forest have been interpreted as a sign of an extended reionization process below z~6. Such features are impossible to reproduce with simple models of the intergalactic ionizing background…
We report on the detection of strongly varying intergalactic HeII absorption in HST/COS spectra of two z~3 quasars. From our homogeneous analysis of the HeII absorption in these and three archival sightlines, we find a marked increase in…
The larger-than-expected scatter in the opacity of the Ly$\alpha$ forest suggests that the metagalactic ionizing background is strongly fluctuating at $z > 5.5$. Models for ionizing background fluctuations predict a strong positive bias on…
I discuss fluctuations in the neutral hydrogen (HI) density of the z~2.3 intergalactic medium and show that their relation to cosmic overdensity is strongly scale-dependent. This behaviour arises from a linearized version of the well-known…
The ionizing background determines the ionization balance and the thermodynamics of the cosmic gas. It is therefore a fundamental ingredient to theoretical and empirical studies of both the IGM and galaxy formation. We present here a new…
The observed scatter in intergalactic Lyman-$\alpha$ opacity at $z \lesssim 6$ requires large-scale fluctuations in the neutral fraction of the intergalactic medium (IGM) after the expected end of reionization. Post-reionization models that…
Recent observations suggest that helium became fully ionized around redshift z ~ 3. The HeII optical depth derived from the Lyman-alpha forest decreases substantially from this period to z ~ 2; moreover, it fluctuates strongly near z ~ 3…
The Lyman-alpha forest at z >~ 5.5 shows strong scatter in the mean transmission even when smoothed over very large spatial scales, >~ 50 Mpc/h. This has been interpreted as a signature of strongly fluctuating radiation fields, or patchy…
We present new high-resolution (R~14,000) spectra of the two brightest HeII-transparent quasars in the far-UV (FUV) at z>3.5, HE2QSJ2311-1417 (z=3.70) and HE2QSJ1630+0435 (z=3.81), obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) on the…
We investigate the possible influence of fluctuations in the metagalactic photoionizing ultra-violet background (UVBG) on the clustering of Ly$\alpha$-emitting galaxies through the modulation of the ionization level of the gas surrounding…
An analytical framework is presented to understand the effects of a fluctuating intensity of the cosmic ionising background on the correlations of the Ly{\alpha} forest transmission fraction measured in quasar spectra. In the absence of…
We present a new HST/STIS spectrum of the z=3.18 quasar PKS 1935-692 and summarize the spectral features shortwards of 304A in the rest frame likely to be caused by foreground HeII Lyman-alpha absorption. In accord with previous results on…
The amplitude of the metagalactic ultraviolet background (UVB) at large-scales is impacted by two factors. First, it naturally attenuates at scales larger than mean-free-path of UVB photons due to the absorption by neutral intergalactic…
Some Lyman continuum photons are likely to escape from most galaxies, and these can play an important role in ionizing gas around and between galaxies, including gas that gives rise to Lyman alpha absorption. Thus the gas surrounding…
Observations of resolved HeII Lyman alpha absorption in spectra of two QSO's suggest that the epoch of helium ionization occurred at z~3. Proximity zones in the spectra of the quasars (z=3.18, 3.285) at 304 A resemble Stromgren spheres,…
We present a reanalysis of the HeII Lyman alpha absorption towards the quasars HS1700+6416 and HE2347-4342 using new high S/N, optical observations. An alternative analysis method is applied, which fits the high quality, optical HI data…
We calibrate here cosmological radiative transfer simulation with ATON/RAMSES with a range of measurements of the Lyman alpha opacity from QSO absorption spectra. We find the Lyman alpha opacity to be very sensitive to the exact timing of…
The HeII transverse proximity effect - enhanced HeII Ly{\alpha} transmission in a background sightline caused by the ionizing radiation of a foreground quasar - offers a unique opportunity to probe the emission properties of quasars, in…
A variety of observations now indicate that intergalactic helium was fully ionized by z~3. The most recent measurements of the high-redshift quasar luminosity function imply that these sources had produced ~2.5 ionizing photons per helium…