Related papers: An ionizing UV background dominated by massive sta…
The estimate of the ionizing UV background through the proximity effect analysis is discussed. Taking into account the correct bending of the column density distribution which appears in high resolution high s/n data, a value of the UV…
We report the detection of significant Lyman continuum flux in the composite spectrum of 29 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) with redshifts <z> = 3.40+/-0.09. After correction for opacity due to intervening absorption using a new composite QSO…
We use new studies of the cosmic evolution of star-forming galaxies to estimate the production rate of ionizing photons from hot, massive stars at low and intermediate redshifts. The luminosity function of blue galaxies in the Canada-France…
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…
We compute the ionizing radiation field at low redshift, arising from Seyferts, QSOs, and starburst galaxies. This calculation combines recent Seyfert luminosity functions, extrapolated ultraviolet fluxes from our IUE-AGN database, and a…
Recent suggestions of a "photon underproduction crisis" (Kollmeier \etal\ 2014) have generated concern over the intensity and spectrum of ionizing photons in the metagalactic ultraviolet background (UVB). The balance of hydrogen…
We present the results of a photometric redshift analysis designed to identify z>6 galaxies from the near-IR HST imaging in three deep fields (HUDF, HUDF09-2 & ERS). By adopting a rigorous set of criteria for rejecting low-z interlopers,…
We study the observed cosmic ionizing background as a constraint on the nature of the sources responsible for the reionization of the Universe. In earlier work, we showed that extrapolations of the Ultra-Violet Luminosity Function (LF) of…
Early results from the JWST observations have reported a surprisingly high number of UV-bright galaxies at $z \geq 10$, which appears to challenge the theoretical predictions from standard galaxy formation models in the $\Lambda$CDM…
Star-forming galaxies are considered to be the leading candidate sources that dominate the cosmic reionization at z>7, and the search for analogs at moderate redshift showing Lyman continuum (LyC) leakage is currently a active line of…
The history of the transition from a neutral intergalactic medium (IGM) to one that is almost fully ionized can reveal the character of cosmological ionizing sources and set important constraints on the stellar birthrate at high redshifts.…
We investigate the implications of the intergalactic opacity for the evolution of the cosmic UV luminosity density and its sources. Our main constraint is our measurement of the Lya forest opacity at redshifts 2<z<4.2 from 86…
Measurements of the galaxy UV luminosity function at z>6 suggest that young stars hosted in low-mass star-forming galaxies produced the bulk of hydrogen-ionizing photons necessary to reionize the intergalactic medium (IGM) by redshift z~6.…
Four recent observational results have challenged our understanding of high--redshift galaxies, as they require the presence of far more ultraviolet photons than should be emitted by normal stellar populations. First, there is significant…
We use a sample of rest-frame UV selected and spectroscopically observed galaxies at redshifts 1.9<z<3.4, combined with ground-based spectroscopic H-alpha and Spitzer MIPS 24 micron data, to derive the most robust measurements of the…
We present a new, on-the-fly photon flux and absorption tracer algorithm designed to directly measure the contribution of different source populations to the metagalactic UV background and to the ionisation fraction of gas in the Universe.…
We present new measurements of the intensity of the ionizing ultraviolet background and the global emissivity of ionizing photons over 2 < z < 5. Our results are based on a suite of updated measurements of physical properties of the…
Many recent estimates of the star formation rate density at high redshift rely on rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) data. These are highly sensitive to dust absorption. Applying a correlation between the far-infrared (FIR) to UV flux ratio and UV…
We present initial results of a survey for star-forming galaxies in the redshift range 3.8 < z < 4.5. This sample consists of a photometric catalog of 244 galaxies culled from a total solid angle of 0.23 square degrees to an apparent…
We report on high resolution spectra of the bright QSO HS0747+4259 (zem = 1.90, V = 15.8) observed to search for intermediate redshift OVI absorption systems. The spectra were obtained by means of the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph…