Related papers: Reconstructing the intergalactic UV background wit…
We present a high spectral resolution optical spectrum of the bright quasar Q~1037-2704. The large number of absorption systems suggests the presence of an intervening supercluster, but the issue remains controversial.\par We demonstrate…
Results from an analysis of the intrinsic UV absorption in the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 3783 are presented. We focus on two new results that demonstrate techniques for deriving important constraints on the physical conditions and geometry of…
We study the internal structure of the Circum-Galactic Medium (CGM), using 29 spectra of 13 gravitationally lensed quasars with image separation angles of a few arcseconds, which correspond to 100 pc to 10 kpc in physical distances. After…
We use the recent detection of He II absorption at $z=2.2-2.6$ in the line of sight of the quasar HS1700+64 to put bounds on the sources of ionization. We find that given the uncertainty in $\tauhgp$ and the model of absorption in the…
We present computations of the ionization structure and metal-absorption properties of thermally conductive interface layers that surround evaporating warm spherical clouds, embedded in a hot medium. We rely on the analytical formalism of…
We examine the relationship between galaxies and the intergalactic medium at z < 1 using a group of three closely spaced background QSOs with z_em ~1 observed with the Hubble Space Telescope. Using a new grouping algorithm, we identify…
The presence of a ``warm absorber'' was first suggested to explain spectral variability in an X-ray spectrum of the radio-quiet QSO MR2251-178. A unified picture, in which X-ray warm absorbers and ``intrinsic'' UV absorbers are the same,…
We investigate the evolution of the ionization state of metal-enriched gas in and around galaxies near the epoch of reionization using a sample of 488 metal absorption systems at 4.3<z<6.3 from the E-XQR-30 survey. We classify the…
Utilizing high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamic simulations we investigate various ultra-violet absorption lines in the circumgalactic medium of star forming galaxies at low redshift, in hopes of checking and alleviating the claimed…
We present results of the first survey of high-redshift (<z> ~ 2.3) OVI absorption systems along parallel lines of sight toward two lensed QSOs. After a careful and well-defined search, we find ten intervening OVI systems. Within the…
We examine a model for the variable free-free and neutral hydrogen absorption inferred towards the cores of some compact radio galaxies in which a spatially fluctuating medium drifts in front of the source. We relate the absorption-induced…
We study the properties of self-shielding intergalactic absorption systems and their implications for the ionizing background. We find that cosmological simulations post-processed with detailed radiative transfer calculations generally are…
Observations of quasar absorption line systems reveal that the z=3 intergalactic medium (IGM) is polluted by heavy elements down to HI optical depths tau_HI<<10. What is not yet clear, however, is what fraction of the volume needs to be…
Detecting neutral hydrogen structures in the intergalactic medium (IGM) during cosmic reionization via absorption (21 cm forest) against a background radiation is considered independent and complementary to the three-dimensional tomography…
(Abridged) We show that sizeable fractions of incident ionizing radiation from stochastic astrophysical sources can be redistributed to biologically and chemically important UV wavelengths, a significant fraction of which can reach the…
High resolution rest frame UV quasar absorption spectra covering low and high ionization species, as well as the Lyman series lines, provide remarkably detailed information about the gaseous phases of galaxies and their environments. For…
The intergalactic medium at redshifts 2--6 can be studied observationally through the absorption features it produces in the spectra of background quasars. Most of the UV-absorption lines arise in mildly overdense regions, which can be…
We present a direct measurement of the metallicity distribution function for the high redshift intergalactic medium. We determine the shape of this function using survival statistics, which account for both detections and non-detections of…
I review our recent results concerning the metal abundances in quasar absorption-line spectra obtained with the UVES/VLT, HIRES/ KECK, and STIS/HST spectrographs. The analysis is based on the Monte Carlo inversion procedure aimed at the…
The ionizing background of cosmic hydrogen is an important probe of the sources and absorbers of ionizing radiation in the post-reionization universe. Previous studies show that the ionization rate should be very sensitive to changes in the…