Related papers: Modeling the HeII Transverse Proximity Effect: Con…
The radiation background above the ionization edge of HeII varies strongly during and after helium reionization, because the attenuation length of such photons is relatively short (<40 Mpc) and because the ionizing sources (quasars) are…
Using hydrodynamical simulations coupled to a radiative transfer code, we study the additional heating effects in the intergalactic medium (IGM) produced by $z\sim 6$ quasars in their near-zones. If helium is predominantly in HeII to begin…
After quasars ionize intergalactic HeII at z~3, a large radiation field builds up above the HeII ionization edge. Unlike the background responsible for HI ionizations, this field should be highly variable, thanks to the scarcity of bright…
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…
Ultra-violet (UV) radiation from accreting black holes ionizes the intergalactic gas around early quasars, carving out highly ionized bubbles in their surroundings. Any changes in a quasar's luminosity are therefore predicted to produce…
Interpretation of He II Ly{\alpha} absorption spectra after the epoch of He II reionization requires knowledge of the He II ionizing background. While past work has modelled the evolution of the average background, the standard cosmological…
We exploit a set of high signal-to-noise (~70), low-resolution (R~800) quasar spectra to search for the signature of the so-called proximity effect in the HI Ly alpha forest. Our sample consists of 17 bright quasars in the redshift range…
Using radiative transfer calculations and cosmological simulations of structure formation, we study constraints that can be placed on the nature of the cosmic ultraviolet (UV) background in the redshift interval 2.5< z <5. Our approach…
In the standard picture, episodes of luminous quasar activity are directly related to supermassive black hole (SMBH) growth. The ionising radiation emitted over a quasar's lifetime alters the ionisation state of the surrounding…
The intense radiation emitted by luminous quasars dramatically alters the ionization state of their surrounding IGM. This so-called proximity effect extends out to tens of Mpc, and manifests as large coherent regions of enhanced…
Understanding the growth of the supermassive black holes powering luminous quasars, their co-evolution with host galaxies, and impact on the surrounding intergalactic medium depends sensitively on the duration of quasar accretion episodes.…
We report the discovery of a further line of sight allowing detection of HeII Ly alpha absorption by the intergalactic medium. A HST/STIS survey of 32 bright z ~ 3 quasars selected from the Hamburg Quasar Surveys yielded one detection…
We investigate the large-scale inhomogeneities of the hydrogen ionizing radiation field in the Universe at redshift z=3. Using a raytracing algorithm, we simulate a model in which quasars are the dominant sources of radiation. We make use…
Q0302-003 ($z=3.2860 \pm 0.0005$) was the first quasar discovered that showed a He II Gunn-Peterson trough, a sign of incomplete helium reionization at $z > 2.9$. We present its HST/Cosmic Origins Spectrograph far-UV medium-resolution…
We have constructed a sample of 29 close projected quasar pairs where the background quasar spectrum reveals absorption from optically thick HI gas associated with the foreground quasar. These unique sightlines allow us to study the quasar…
We report the discovery of a quasar at z=3.050+/-0.003, closely coincident in redshift with the isolated low-opacity feature seen near z~3.056 in the otherwise black portion of the HeII Gunn-Peterson absorption trough seen toward the…
We look for signs of the H~I transverse proximity effect in the spectra of 130 QSO pairs, most with transverse separations in the plane of the sky of 0.1 -- 3 Mpc at z ~ 2.2. We expected to see a decrease in Lyman-alpha forest HI absorption…
Observations of the intergalactic medium (IGM) suggest that quasars reionize HeII in the IGM at z ~ 3. We have run a set of 190 and 430 comoving Mpc simulations of HeII being reionized by quasars to develop an understanding of the nature of…
The low density hydrogen and helium in the IGM probed by QSO absorption lines is sensitive to the amplitude and spectral shape of the metagalactic UV background. We use realistic HI and HeII Ly-alpha forest spectra, constructed from…
We present a theoretical framework for linking quasar properties, such as quasar age, to the surrounding Ly$\alpha$ emission intensity. In particular, we focus on a method for mapping the large-scale structure of Ly$\alpha$ emission…