Related papers: Lyman Limit Systems in Cosmological Simulations
With the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE), it is now possible to detect spatially extended Lyman alpha emission from individual faint (M_UV ~ -18) galaxies at redshifts, 3 < z < 6, tracing gas out to circum-galactic scales…
A population of early star-forming galaxies is the leading candidate for the re-ionization of the universe. It is still unclear what conditions and physical processes would enable a significant fraction of the ionizing photons to escape…
We study the effect of local stellar radiation and UVB on the physical properties of DLAs and LLSs at z=3 using cosmological SPH simulations. We post-process our simulations with the ART code for radiative transfer of local stellar…
A large fraction of the baryonic matter in the Universe is located in filaments in the intergalactic medium. However, the low surface brightness of these filaments has not yet allowed their direct detection except in very special regions in…
We describe our surveys of low column density Lyman-alpha absorbers [N(HI) = 10^(12.5-16.0) cm^-2], which show that the warm photoionized IGM contains 30% of all baryons at z < 0.1. This fraction is consistent with cosmological simulations,…
We use a cosmological hydrodynamic simulation of a cold dark matter universe to investigate theoretically the relationship between high redshift galaxies and the Lyman=alpha forest at redshift z=3. Galaxies in the simulation are surrounded…
Lyman Limit systems (LLSs) trace the low-density circumgalactic medium and the most dense regions of the intergalactic medium, so their number density and evolution at high redshift, just after reionisation, are important to constrain. We…
The nature of the interaction between galaxies and the intergalactic medium (IGM) is one of the most fundamental problems in astrophysics. The accretion of gas onto galaxies provides fuel for star formation, while galactic winds transform…
If enough of their Lyman limit continuum escapes, star-forming galaxies could be significant contributors to the cosmic background of ionizing photons. To investigate this possibility, we obtained the first deep imaging in the far…
Identifying and characterising reionised bubbles enables us to track both their size distribution, which depends on the primary ionising sources, and the relationship between reionisation and galaxy evolution. We demonstrate that spectrally…
Mapping the intergalactic medium (IGM) in Lyman-$\alpha$ emission would yield unprecedented tomographic information on the large-scale distribution of baryons and potentially provide new constraints on the UV background and various feedback…
The last few years have seen a dramatic improvement in our understanding of the origin of Lyman alpha absorption systems. Hydrodynamic numerical simulations of cold dark matter dominated universes have shown that the many properties of the…
We analyze Keck HIRES observations of a Lyman limit system at z=2.652 toward Q2231-00. These observations afford the most comprehensive study of the physical properties of a LL system to date. By comparing the ionic column densities for…
Distant luminous Lyman-alpha emitters are excellent targets for detailed observations of galaxies in the epoch of reionisation. Spatially resolved observations of these galaxies allow us to simultaneously probe the emission from young…
We interpret observations of intergalactic low ionisation metal absorption systems at redshifts z $\gtrsim$5 in terms of pressure-confined clouds. We find clouds confined by the expected pressure of galactic haloes with masses $11<\log…
We present a quantitative model of Lyman-alpha (Ly-alpha) emission throughout cosmic history and determine the prospects for intensity mapping of spatial fluctuations in the Ly-alpha signal. Since i) our model assumes at z>6 the minimum…
It is possible that the properties of HII regions during reionization depend sensitively on many poorly constrained quantities (the nature of the ionizing sources, the clumpiness of the gas in the IGM, the degree to which photo-ionizing…
Known populations of QSOs appear to fall short of producing the ionizing flux required for re-ionizing the universe. The alternative, galaxies as sources of ionizing photons, suffers from the problem that known types of galaxies are almost…
Any viable cosmological model must produce enough structure at early epochs to explain the amount of gas associated with high-redshift damped Ly$\alpha$ systems. We study the evolution of damped Ly$\alpha$ systems at redshifts $z\ge 2$ in…
We calculate the neutral hydrogen column density of self-absorption in QSOs predicted in a model where the QSOs are located in the same halos that contain the gas in damped Lya absorption systems. The model is parameterized by the…