Related papers: Hydrogen Self Shielding in a Quasar Proximity Zone

We present an X-ray and multiwavelength study of 33 weak emission-line quasars (WLQs) and 18 quasars that are analogs of the extreme WLQ, PHL 1811, at z ~ 0.5-2.9. New Chandra 1.5-9.5 ks exploratory observations were obtained for 32 objects…

We perform a Halo Occupation Distribution (HOD) modeling of the projected two-point correlation function (2PCF) of quasars that are observed in the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope with counter-parts in the Sloan Digital…

We derive the distribution of neutral and ionized gas in high redshift clouds which are optically thick to hydrogen ionizing radiation, using published data on Lyman-limit and Damped Lyman-alpha absorption systems in the redshift range 1.75…

We analyze the size evolution of HII regions around 27 quasars between z=5.7 to 6.4 ('quasar near-zones' or NZ). We include more sources than previous studies, and we use more accurate redshifts for the host galaxies, with 8 CO molecular…

We use high signal-to-noise ratio, high-resolution VLT-UVES data of Q J0643-5041 amounting to a total of more than 23 hours exposure time and fit the neutral hydrogen, metals and H2 absorption features with multiple-component Voigt…

A bright quasar residing in a dense and largely neutral intergalactic medium (IGM) at high redshifts (z > 6) will be surrounded by a large cosmological Stromgren sphere. The quasar's spectrum will then show a sharp increase in resonant…

The neutral hydrogen and the ionized helium absorption in the spectra of quasars are unique probes of structure in the early universe. We present Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer observations of the line of sight to the quasar…

We present the largest homogeneous survey of $z>4.4$ damped Lyman-$\alpha$ systems (DLAs) using the spectra of 163 QSOs that comprise the Giant Gemini GMOS (GGG) survey. With this survey we make the most precise high-redshift measurement of…

Atomic hydrogen (HI) serves a crucial role in connecting galactic-scale properties such as star formation with the large-scale structure of the Universe. While recent numerical simulations have successfully matched the observed covering…

We present a new method to directly map the neutral-hydrogen distribution during the reionization epoch and to constrain the emission properties of the highest-redshift quasars (QSOs). As a tracer of HI, we propose to use the Ly-alpha…

Dense gas in minihalos with masses of $10^6-10^8~M_\odot$ can shield themselves from reionization for $\sim100$ Myr after being exposed to the UV background. These self-shielded systems, often unresolved in cosmological simulations, can…

We make use of hydrodynamical simulations of the intergalactic medium (IGM) to create model quasar absorption spectra. We compare these model spectra with the observed Keck spectra of three z>6.2 quasars with full Gunn-Peterson troughs:…

We present results from the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey (KBSS), a unique spectroscopic survey designed to explore the connection between galaxies and intergalactic baryons. The KBSS is optimized for the redshift range z ~ 2-3, combining…

The observed flaring of HI disk in the outer region of galaxies has been used in the past to determine the shape of the dark matter halo. Previous studies based on this concept suggest a slightly oblate halo (axis ratio ~ 0.8) for our…

Simulating the distribution of cosmological neutral hydrogen (HI) during the epoch of reionization requires a high dynamic range and is hence computationally expensive. The size of the simulation is dictated by the largest scales one aims…

We present cosmological ($30-400$ Mpc) distributions of neutral hydrogen (HI) in the inter-galactic medium (IGM) traced by Ly$\alpha$ Emitters (LAEs) and QSOs at $z=2.1-2.5$, selected with the data of the on-going Hobby-Eberly Telescope…

We present a pipeline based on a random forest classifier for the identification of high column-density clouds of neutral hydrogen (i.e. the Lyman limit systems, LLSs) in absorption within large spectroscopic surveys of z>3 quasars. We test…

With close pairs of quasars at different redshifts, a background quasar sightline can be used to study a foreground quasar's environment in absorption. We search 149 moderate resolution background quasar spectra, from Gemini, Keck, the MMT,…

We use cosmological simulations of reionization to predict the effect of large HII regions around individual high-redshift quasars on the possible signal from the redshifted 21cm line of neutral hydrogen in the pre-reionization era. We show…

We present a new method to directly measure the opacity from HI Lyman limit (LL) absorption k_LL along quasar sightlines by the intergalactic medium (IGM). The approach analyzes the average (``stacked'') spectrum of an ensemble of quasars…