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Related papers: Have the missing cosmic baryons been found?

200 papers

Characterizing the relationship between stars, gas, and metals in galaxies is a critical component of understanding the cosmic baryon cycle. We compile contemporary censuses of the baryons in collapsed structures, their chemical make-up and…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2020-11-05 Celine Peroux , J. Christopher Howk

The discovery of cosmic microwave background (CMB) was a paradigm shift in the study and fundamental understanding of the early universe and also the Big Bang phenomenon. Cosmic microwave background is one of the richest and intriguing…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2020-08-11 Amit Mishra , Pranath Reddy , Rahul Nigam

We show that the high local baryonic fraction, M(bar) ~ 1/3 M(tot), found in groups and clusters of galaxies does not reconcile the observed cosmological baryon density with the standard Big-Bang prediction. Taking into account recent…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 Paolo Salucci , Massimo Persic

This paper presents constraints on the cosmological density of baryons from a systematic search for O VII and O VIII absorption lines in the XMM-Newton and Chandra X-ray spectra of 51 background sources. The search is based on far…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2025-07-30 Massimiliano Bonamente , David Spence , Jussi Ahoranta , Nastasha Wijers , Toni Tuominen , Jelle De Plaa

One of the biggest mysteries in the modern cosmology and galaxy formation is the hideout of the "missing baryons". The leading theory of galaxy formation predicts that a huge amount of baryons resides around galaxies extending out to their…

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Physics 2021-04-21 Yi Zhang , Ruo-Yu Liu , Hui Li , Shi Shao , Huirong Yan , Xiang-Yu Wang , Xiao-Na Sun

The cosmic baryon density fraction ($\Omega_{\rm b}$) is intrinsically correlated with the Hubble constant ($H_0$) through the critical density of the Universe. In the context of the decade-long $H_0$ tension, the significant discrepancy…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2026-03-13 Ji-Guo Zhang , Ji-Yu Song , Wan-Peng Sun , Ze-Wei Zhao , Jing-Fei Zhang , Xin Zhang

The Intergalactic Medium (IGM) contains $>$50% of the baryonic mass of the Universe, yet the mechanisms responsible for keeping the IGM ionized has not been fully explained. Hence, we investigate ion abundances from the largest blind QSO…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2024-03-04 Brad Koplitz , Anjali Ramesh , Sanchayeeta Borthakur

The bulk of cosmic matter resides in a dilute reservoir that fills the space between galaxies, the intergalactic medium (IGM). The history of this reservoir is intimately tied to the cosmic histories of structure formation, star formation,…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2016-10-05 Matthew McQuinn

Cosmic filaments are thought to host a substantial fraction of the missing baryons at redshifts $z<2$. In this study, we constraint the baryonic content of these filaments using localized Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). Filaments are identified…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2025-11-04 Jian-Feng Mo , Weishan Zhu , Qi-Rui Yang , Yi Zheng , Long-Long Feng

We describe the implications of cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations and galaxy and cluster surveys of large scale structure (LSS) for theories of cosmic structure formation, especially emphasizing the recent Boomerang and Maxima…

We present a study of the Ly\alpha forest at z<0.4 from which we conclude that at least 20% of the total baryons in the universe are located in the highly-ionized gas traced by broad Ly\alpha absorbers. The cool photoionized low-z…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-11 N. Lehner , B. D. Savage , P. Richter , K. R. Sembach , T. M. Tripp , B. P. Wakker

The intergalactic neutral hydrogen which is responsible for the Lyman alpha forest of quasar absorption is a tracer of much larger amounts of ionised hydrogen. The ionised component has yet to be detected directly, but is expected to…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-11 Rupert A. C. Croft , A. J. Banday , Lars Hernquist

The majority of baryons reside beyond the optical extent of a galaxy in the circumgalactic and intergalactic media (CGM/IGM). Gaseous halos are inextricably linked to the appearance of their host galaxies through a complex story of…

Most of the baryons in the local universe are ``missing'' in that they are not in galaxies or in the previously detected gaseous phases. These missing baryons are predicted to be in a moderately hot phase, 10^5-10^7 K, largely in the form…

Astrophysics · Physics 2007-05-23 Eric D. Miller , Renato A. Dupke , Joel N. Bregman

Clusters of galaxies are self-gravitating systems of mass ~10^14-10^15 Msun. They consist of dark matter (~80 %), hot diffuse intracluster plasma (< 20 %) and a small fraction of stars, dust, and cold gas, mostly locked in galaxies. In most…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-13 A. Diaferio , S. Schindler , K. Dolag

Galaxy halos appear to be missing a large fraction of their baryons, most probably hiding in the circumgalactic medium (CGM), a diffuse component within the dark matter halo that extends far from the inner regions of the galaxies. A…

We present results from the analysis of cosmic microwave background (CMB), large scale structure (galaxy redshift survey) and X-ray galaxy cluster (baryon fraction and X-ray luminosity function) data, assuming a geometrically flat…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-10 S. W. Allen , R. W. Schmidt , S. L. Bridle

The recent constraints on the cosmological parameters put from the observations of the WMAP satellite limit the cosmic baryon fraction in a range that is larger than, and marginally consistent with, what is measured in galaxy clusters. This…

Astrophysics · Physics 2009-11-07 S. Ettori

We study the relationship between two major baryonic components in galaxy clusters, namely the stars in galaxies, and the ionized gas in the intracluster medium (ICM), using 94 clusters that span the redshift range 0-0.6. Accurately…

Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics · Physics 2015-06-03 Yen-Ting Lin , S. Adam Stanford , Peter R. M. Eisenhardt , Alexey Vikhlinin , Ben J. Maughan , Andrey Kravtsov

Over the past decade, Lyman-alpha and metal line absorption observations have established the ubiquity of a gas-rich circumgalactic medium (CGM) around star-forming galaxies at z~0.2 potentially tracing half of the missing baryonic mass…

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Physics 2019-03-19 D. J. Pisano , A. Fox , D. French , J. C. Howk , N. Lehner , F. J. Lockman , K. Jones