Related papers: Missing Baryons in the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medi…
Using a hydrodynamic simulation of a LCDM universe, we investigate the "X-ray forest" absorption imprinted on the spectra of background quasars by the intervening intergalactic medium (IGM). In agreement with previous studies, we find that…
We report the first detection of an OVIII Ly-alpha absorption line associated with an overdense region in the intergalactic medium (IGM) along the sightline towards PKS 2155-304 with the Chandra Low Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer…
We investigate the metallicity evolution and content of the intergalactic medium (IGM) and galactic halo gas from z=2->0 using 110-million particle cosmological hydrodynamic simulations. We focus on the detectability and physical properties…
The observational constraints on the baryon content of the WHIM rely almost entirely on FUV measurements. However, cosmological, hydrodynamical simulations predict strong correlations between the spatial distributions of FUV and X-ray…
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…
We present a detection of a broad Ly-alpha absorber (BLA) with a matching O VI line in the nearby universe. The BLA is detected at z = 0.01028 in the high S/N spectrum of Mrk 290 obtained using the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. The Ly-alpha…
In this Letter we demonstrate that the two claims of $z\simeq 0.03$ OVII K$\alpha$ absorption lines from Warm Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM) along the lines of sight to the blazars H~2356-309 (Buote et al., 2009; Fang et al., 2010) and…
We present a detailed analysis of the chemical abundances, ionization state, and origin of a partial Lyman limit system (N(HI) ~ 10^{16} cm^{-2}) at low redshift (z=0.167 towards PKS0405-1219). We also present the first estimate of the…
The angular power spectrum and polarization of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), the relative abundances of primordial hydrogen, deuterium and helium isotopes, and the large-scale structure of the universe all indicate that…
We present here results from a survey of intervening C IV absorbers at $z < 0.16$ conducted using 223 sightlines from the Hubble Spectroscopic Legacy Archive. Most systems (83%) out of the total sample of 69 have simple kinematics with 1 or…
We discuss two aspects of the ionization and abundances in QSO intrinsic absorbers. First, we use the high-ionization doublet Ne VIII 770,780 to test the relationship between the UV line absorbers and the ``warm'' absorbers detected in soft…
Thermally broadened Ly alpha absorbers (BLAs) offer an alternative method to highly-ionized metal lines for tracing the WHIM. We compile a catalog of reliable BLA candidates along seven AGN sight lines from a larger set of Lya absorbers…
We present a search for O I in the spectra of nine 4.9 < z_qso < 6.4 QSOs taken with Keck/HIRES. We detect six systems with N(O I) > 10^13.7 cm^{-2} in the redshift intervals where O I 1302 falls redward of the Ly-alpha forest. Four of…
We present a sample of 34 weak metal line absorbers at $z< 0.3$ complied via the simultaneous detections ($3\sigma$) of the SiII$\lambda1260$ and CII$\lambda1334$ absorption lines, with $W_{r}$(SiII)$<0.2$ \AA\ and $W_{r}$(CII)$<0.3$ \AA,…
Metal absorbers represent a powerful probe of galaxy feedback and reionization, as highlighted by both observational and theoretical results showing an increased abundance of low-ionised metal species at higher redshifts. The origin of such…
A large fraction of the baryon budget at $z<1$ resides in large-scale filaments in the form of diffuse intergalactic gas, and numerous studies have reported a significant correlation between the strength of the absorptions produced by this…
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…
At low redshift (z<2), almost half of the baryons in the Universe are not found in bound structures like galaxies and clusters and therefore most likely reside in a Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium (WHIM), as predicted by simulations. Attempts…
We investigate the existence of a metal-rich OVI population in 10 high spectral resolution quasar spectra and define observational criteria for this class of absorbers. The low temperatures of nearly half of all OVI absorbers (redshifts 2.0…
At z<1 a large fraction of the baryons is thought to reside in diffuse gas that has been shock-heated to high temperatures (log T=5-6). Absorption by the 770.41, 780.32 {\AA} doublet of NeVIII in quasar spectra represents a unique tool to…