Related papers: Are the Lyman alpha forest "clouds" expanding panc…
We report a scaling of the mean matter density with the width of the saturated Lyman alpha absorptions. This property is established using the ``pseudo-hydro'' technique (Croft et al. 1998). It provides a constraint for the inversion of the…
Essentially all high-redshift galaxies show evidence for strong large-scale outflows that should have a profound effect on the structure and kinematics of both the galaxies themselves and their environment. The interstellar absorption…
Detailed analysis of the spectral lines from two low redshift damped Lyman alpha absorbers (DLA) confirms that they are a heterogeneous population. Both systems have low metal abundances of approximately 0.05 to 0.1 solar. The abundance…
Powerful outflows from star-forming galaxies are expected to push away the neutral intergalactic medium (IGM) around those galaxies, and produce absorption-free gaps in the Ly-alpha forest. We analyze the abundance of gaps of various sizes…
We use hydrodynamic simulations to predict correlations between Lya forest absorption and galaxies at redshift z~3. The probability distribution function (PDF) of Lya flux decrements shifts systematically towards higher values in the…
Estimates of Omega_baryon from primordial nucleosynthesis together with standard assumptions about the ionization state of low column density Lyman alpha forest clouds can be used to determine an upper limit for the cloud thickness along…
We use high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations to investigate the spatial correlation between weak (N(HI) <10^{15} cm^{-2}) Ly-alpha absorbers and gas-rich galaxies in the local universe. We confirm that Ly-alpha absorbers are…
We present further observational results on our Lya-only absorber identification project at low and intermediate redshifts. We combine CFHT/MOS imaging and spectroscopic observations of 25 galaxies in the field of the quasar 3C286 (z_e =…
It is shown that many properties of Ly-alpha forest absorbers can be derived using simple physical arguments. Analytical expressions are derived for the density and the size of an absorber as a function of its neutral hydrogen column…
The absorption lines observed in quasar spectra have given us a detailed picture of the intergalactic medium and the metal abundance and kinematics of high redshift galaxies. In this review, we present an introduction to the field, starting…
Using high resolution (R ~ 45000), high S/N (20-50) VLT/UVES observations covering the Lyman-alpha forest at 1.5 < z < 2.4 combined with similar observations at z > 2.4 from the literature, we have presented the redshift evolution of the…
We present constrained radiative transfer calculations of Lyman Alpha (Lya) photons propagating through clumpy, dusty, large scale outflows, and explore whether we can quantitatively explain the Lya halos that have been observed around…
We have re--examined the chemical composition of \lya clouds using the composite--cloud technique, in which each \lya line in a spectrum is shifted to its rest frame wavelength and all rest frame spectra are co--added to form an `averaged'…
The strong observed clustering of $z>3.5$ quasars indicates they are hosted by massive ($M_{\rm{halo}}\gtrsim10^{12}\,h^{-1}\,\rm{M_{\odot}}$) dark matter halos. Assuming quasars and galaxies trace the same large-scale structures, this…
Galaxies are surrounded by large reservoirs of gas, mostly hydrogen, fed by inflows from the intergalactic medium and by outflows due to galactic winds. Absorption-line measurements along the sightlines to bright and rare background quasars…
We investigate the properties of the Lyman alpha forest as predicted by numerical simulations for a range of currently viable cosmological models. This is done in order to understand the dependencies of the forest on cosmological…
We discuss the origin and physical nature of the Lya forest absorption systems as found in hydrodynamical simulations of the Intergalactic Medium in a standard Cold Dark Matter cosmology (Omega=1, H0=50 km/s/Mpc, sigma_8=0.7). The…
We investigate the dependence of QSO Lyman-alpha absorption features on the temperature of the absorbing gas and on the amplitude of the underlying dark matter fluctuations. We use high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations in cold dark…
The effects of galaxy selection on our ability to constrain the nature of weak Ly\alpha absorbers at low redshift are explored. Current observations indicate the existence of a population of gas-rich, low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies,…
We present some statistical features of the large number of \lya absorption lines detected in high redshift quasar spectra, obtained by using the multifractal approach. In the analysed sample of 12 QSO sight--lines, 11 show scaling…