Related papers: THE GUNN-PETERSON EFFECT FROM UNDERDENSE REGIONS I…
A measure of the average depression between Lyman absorption lines in the spectrum of the faint quasar BR1202-0725 ($z_{em}=4.695$) is presented. The relatively high resolution of the spectrum ($\sim 40$ km s$^{-1}$) allows the selection of…
Many experimental evidences indicate the presence of a ionizing background radiation flux at large redshifts; in some previous works I suggested the possibility that this ionizing flux comes from the quantum evaporation of primordial black…
The Gunn-Peterson effect, absorption of Lya photons by a homogeneous component of the intergalactic medium (IGM), potentially provides a test of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN). With a lower limit on the UV radiation field estimated from the…
We study the Gunn-Peterson effect of the photo-ionized intergalactic medium(IGM) in the redshift range 5< z <6.4 using semi-analytic simulations based on the lognormal model. Assuming a rapidly evolved and spatially uniform ionizing…
Attempts to measure the optical depth due to a diffuse intergalactic medium (IGM) in the spectra of high redshift quasars (GP test) within the ESO key program on the intergalactic medium are reviewed. It is shown that there is no evidence…
Absorption due to HeII Ly-alpha has been detected at low resolution in the spectra of four quasars between redshifts z = 2.74-3.29. We assess these observations, giving particular attention to the radiative transfer of the ionizing…
We derive analytic lower bounds on the cosmic baryon density by requiring that the high-redshift IGM contain enough neutral hydrogen to produce the observed \lya absorption in quasar spectra. The key theoretical assumption is that absorbing…
Soon after the first QSO was identified, Gunn & Peterson searched for the expected characteristic absorption trough on the blueward side of Lya in the spectrum of the QSO due to an Intergalactic Medium (IGM). They failed to find it, placing…
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 show that spatial correlations in a stochastic large scale velocity field in an otherwise smooth intergalactic medium (homogeneous comoving density) superposed on the general Hubble flow, may cause a `line-like' structure in QSO spectra…
A model of the density distribution in the intergalactic medium, motivated by that found in numerical simulations, is used to demonstrate the effect of a clumpy IGM and discrete sources on the reionization of the universe. In an…
We use the recent detection of He II absorption at $z=2.2-2.6$ in the line of sight of the quasar HS1700+64 to put bounds on the sources of ionization. We find that given the uncertainty in $\tauhgp$ and the model of absorption in the…
The distribution of diffuse gas in the intergalactic medium (IGM) imprints a series of hydrogen absorption lines on the spectra of distant background quasars known as the Lyman-$\alpha$ forest. Cosmological hydrodynamical simulations…
The fluctuating Gunn-Peterson approximation (FGPA) is a commonly-used method to generate mock Lyman-$\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$) forest absorption skewers at Cosmic Noon ($z\gtrsim 2$) from the matter-density field of $N$-body simulations without…
Intergalactic space is filled with a pervasive medium of ionized gas, the Intergalactic Medium (IGM). A residual neutral fraction is detected in the spectra of Quasi-Stellar Objects at both low and high redshifts, revealing a highly…
Recent observations have set the first constraints on the epoch of reionization (EoR), corresponding to the formation epoch of the first luminous objects. Studies of Gunn-Peterson (GP) absorption, and related phenomena, suggest a…
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…
We present an argument for a {\it lower limit} to the Compton-$y$ parameter describing spectral distortions of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The absence of a detectable Gunn-Peterson signal in the spectra of high redshift quasars…
Observations of high-redshift quasars show that the IGM must have been reionized at some redshift $z>5$. If a source of radiation could be observed at the rest-frame Lya wavelength, at a sufficiently high redshift where some of the IGM in…
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…