Related papers: Exploring the intergalactic medium with VLT/UVES
A sample of 8 QSOs with 1.7 < z_em < 3.7 has been observed with VLT/UVES at a typical resolution 45000 and S/N~40-50. Thanks to the two-arm design of the spectrograph, a remarkable efficiency has been achieved below 400nm and above 800nm,…
At redshifts z >~ 2, most of the baryons reside in the smooth intergalactic medium which is responsible for the low column density Lyman-alpha forest. This photoheated gas follows a tight temperature-density relation which introduces a…
The intensity of the Cosmic UV background (UVB), coming from all sources of ionising photons such as star-forming galaxies and quasars, determines the thermal evolution and ionization state of the intergalactic medium (IGM) and is,…
The intergalactic medium (IGM) is the dominant reservoir of baryons at all cosmic epochs. We investigate the evolution of the IGM from z=2-0 in 48 Mpc/h, 110-million particle cosmological hydrodynamic simulations using three prescriptions…
Cosmological simulations with gas provide a detailed description of the intergalactic medium, making possible predictions of neutral hydrogen absorption in the spectra of background QSOs. We present results from a high-resolution…
The temperature of the low-density intergalactic medium is set by the balance between adiabatic cooling resulting from the expansion of the universe, and photo-heating by the UV-background. We have analysed the Lyman-alpha forest of eleven…
We identify a concordant model for the intergalactic medium (IGM) at redshift z=1.9 that uses popular values for cosmological and astrophysical parameters and accounts for all baryons with an uncertainty of 6%. We have measured the amount…
Numerical hydrodynamical simulations have proven a successful means of reproducing many of the statistical properties of the LyA forest as measured in high redshift (z > 4) quasar spectra. The source of ionization of the Intergalactic…
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 describe a moderate-resolution (20-25 km/s) FUSE study of the low-redshift intergalactic medium. We report on studies of 7 extragalactic sightlines and 12 Ly-beta absorbers that correspond to Ly-alpha lines detected by HST/GHRS and STIS.…
We present an analysis of the Lyman alpha forests of five quasar spectra in the near UV. Properties of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at an intermediate redshift interval (0.9 < z < 1.9) are studied. The amount of baryons in the diffuse…
Ultraviolet (UV; rest-frame $\sim1200-2000$ A) spectra provide a wealth of diagnostics to characterize fundamental galaxy properties, such as their chemical enrichment, the nature of their stellar populations, and their amount of…
We model the $\lya$ forest in a spatially flat, CDM model with $\Omega=0.4$, with an Eulerian hydrodynamic simulation, and find that the intergalactic, photoionized gas collapses into sheet-like and filamentary structures which produce…
We have performed a detailed statistical study of the evolution of structure in a photoionized intergalactic medium (IGM) using analytical simulations to extend the calculation into the mildly non-linear density regime found to prevail at z…
Ultraviolet spectrographs aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) have proved their value as sensitive probes of the low-density intergalactic medium (IGM) at low redshifts (z < 0.1).…
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…
Very recently a new inversion method has been developped to analyze the intergalactic medium seen in absorption in quasar spectra (the so-called Lyman-alpha forest). This method is applied to recover the temperature of the gas and the…
In Paper I of this series (astro-ph/9911117) we described observations of 15 extragalactic targets taken with the Hubble Space Telescope GHRS/G160M grating for studies of the low-z Lya forest. We reported the detection of 110 Lya absorbers…
The absorption by neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium (IGM) produces the Ly$\alpha$ forest in the spectra of quasars. The Ly$\alpha$ forest absorbers have a broad distribution of neutral hydrogen column density $N_{\rm HI}$ and…
Using a new, increased dataset of 7 QSOs from VLT/UVES observations combined with one QSO from the literature, the minimum Doppler parameters as a function of neutral hydrogen column density N(HI), b_c(N), of the Lyman-alpha forest has been…