Related papers: On Lyman-limit Systems and the Evolution of the In…
At redshifts beyond z>6, as the mean fraction of neutral hydrogen x_HI in the intergalactic medium (IGM) increases, the line flux of Lyman alpha (Lya) emitters can be significantly suppressed, which can result in a decrease in the observed…
The Lyman-$\alpha$ forest refers to the series of absorption features observed in the spectra of distant quasars that are produced by neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium. Observed over a wide range of redshifts with both ground-…
With the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE), it is now possible to detect spatially extended Lyman alpha emission from individual faint (M_UV ~ -18) galaxies at redshifts, 3 < z < 6, tracing gas out to circum-galactic scales…
We have measured the transmission of the Lyman alpha forest produced by neutral hydrogen scattering in the intergalactic medium between redshifts 2 and 6.3 using high signal to noise, high resolution (R > 5000) observations of 50 quasars…
The thermal state of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at z < 6 constrains the nature and timing of cosmic reionization events, but its inference from the Ly-alpha forest is degenerate with the 3-D structure of the IGM on ~100 kpc scales,…
We present a new investigation of the intergalactic medium (IGM) near the end of reionization using "dark gaps" in the Lyman-alpha (Ly$\alpha$) forest. Using spectra of 55 QSOs at $z_{\rm em}>5.5$, including new data from the XQR-30 VLT…
Observations of redshifted Lyman alpha forest absorption in the spectra of quasistellar objects (QSOs) provide a highly sensitive probe of the distribution of gaseous matter in the universe. Over the past two decades optical spectroscopy…
We investigate the properties of cosmological ionization fronts during the Epoch of Reionization using the CROC simulations. By analyzing reionization timing maps, we characterize ionization front velocities and curvatures and their…
We have measured the distribution function of the flux decrement caused by Lyman alpha forest absorption in a new sample of high resolution QSO spectra. The observations are compared to the results from two simulations of the Lya forest: an…
We present an updated model of the cosmic ionizing background from the UV to the X-rays. Relative to our previous model (Faucher-Giguere et al. 2009), the new model provides a better match to a large number of up-to-date empirical…
We use a high-resolution cosmological simulation to predict the distribution of HI Ly-alpha emission from the low-redshift (z<0.5) intergalactic medium (IGM). Our simulation can be used to reliably compute the emission from optically thin…
We compare cosmological hydrodynamical simulations combined with the homogeneous metagalactic UV background (UVB) of Haardt & Madau (2012) (HM2012) to observations of the Lyman-alpha forest that are sensitive to the thermal and ionization…
I apply the well controlled Hydro-PM approximation of Gnedin & Hui to model the column density distribution of the Lyman-alpha forest for 25 different flat cosmological scenarios, including variants of the standard CDM, tilted CDM, CDM with…
We present the first results from a survey of the relative spatial distributions of galaxies, intergalactic neutral hydrogen, and intergalactic metals at high redshift. We obtained high-resolution spectra of 8 bright QSOs at 3.1<z<4.1 and…
Constraints on the ionization structure of the Intergalactic Medium are derived as directly imposed by observations in conjunction with the results of numerical simulations for structure formation. Under the assumption that the population…
The Ly$\alpha$ emission line is one of the most promising probes of cosmic reionisation but isolating the signature of a change in the ionisation state of the IGM is challenging because of intrinsic evolution and internal radiation transfer…
We present the two-point cross-correlation function between Lyman $\alpha$ absorbers and HI galaxies in the nearby Universe ($0.01 \le z \le 0.057$). We use absorbers from 21 QSO sightlines from the Survey of the Low-Redshift Intergalactic…
We investigate the evolution and the statistical properties of the Lya absorbers of the intergalactic medium (IGM) in the largely unexplored redshift range z=0.5-1.9. We use high-resolution (R > 30,000) UV (STIS) and optical (VLT/UVES and…
The evolution of Ly-alpha absorber counts is simulated for a model population of absorbing galaxies. The distribution of gas relative to galaxies could evolve between moderate and low redshifts, but constraints are needed on the strength…
We constrain the H I photoionization rate $(\Gamma_{\rm HI})$ at $z \lesssim 0.45$ by comparing the flux probability distribution function and power spectrum of the Ly-$\alpha$ forest data along 82 QSO sightlines obtained using Cosmic…