Related papers: Redshift Evolution of the Low-Column Density Lyman…
The low-redshift evolution of the intergalactic medium is investigated using hydrodynamic cosmological simulations. The assumed cosmological model is a critical density cold dark matter universe. The imposed uniform background of ionizing…
We examine the statistics of the low-redshift Ly-alpha forest in an adaptive mesh refinement hydrodynamic cosmological simulation of sufficient volume to include distinct large-scale environments. We compare our HI column density…
We present results on the evolution and clustering of Ly-alpha lines at low z. The sample contains 1298 Ly-alpha lines from 165 quasar spectra mined from the archives of the HST/FOS. Our sample extends to z=1.7, slightly higher than the…
I review results obtained from studies of the high-redshift Lyman alpha forest, and present new results from HST/STIS spectra of low-redshift quasars in comparison with cosmological hydrodynamic simulations. The evolution of the Lyman alpha…
An extremely careful separation of the weak metal-line systems relating to the Lyman forest absorbers into individual ``single-phase ionization'' components with accurate parameters has yielded a large sample in the wide redshift range 1.9…
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…
Numerical simulations indicate that the smooth, photoionized intergalactic medium (IGM) responsible for the low column density Lyman-alpha forest follows a well defined temperature-density relation. We show that such an equation of state…
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…
In this paper we critically examine predictions of the Lya forest within the standard cold dark matter (SCDM) model, paying particular attention to the low end of the column-density distribution. We show in particular that the width of…
We investigate the clustering properties of 13 QSO lines of sight in flat space, with average redshifts from z~2 to 4. We estimate the 1-D power spectrum and the integral density of neighbours, and discuss their variation with respect to…
We develop an analytical method based on the lognormal approximation to compute the column density distribution of the Lyman-alpha forest in the low column density limit. We compute the column density distributions for six different…
We study the distribution of low-redshift Ly$\alpha$ clouds in a CDM model using numerical simulations including photoionization and cooling of the baryonic component. The ionizing background is found to be efficient enough to keep most of…
We present the highest quality Lyman Alpha forest spectra published to date, from the QSO HS 1946+7658. The distribution of H I column densities is a power law of slope -1.5 from Log N = 12.1 - 14. This power law can extend to N = 0,…
We present results from high resolution (R\simeq 28000) spectra of six high- redshift QSOs taken at the ESO NTT telescope that allow the detailed study of the Ly-alpha population in the redshift interval z=2.8-4.1. The typical Doppler…
We use a set of cosmological simulations combined with radiative transfer calculations to investigate the distribution of neutral hydrogen in the post-reionization Universe. We assess the contributions from the metagalactic ionizing…
Spectra from the Keck HIRES instrument of the Lyman alpha forests in the lines of sight to the A and C components of the gravitationally lensed QSO Q1422+231 were used to investigate the structure of the intergalactic medium at mean…
A simple consistency argument for hypothesis of the galactic halo origin of the Ly-alpha forest absorption lines is advanced, based on the recent determination of column-density vs. impact parameter relation for the low-redshift gaseous…
In order to ascertain the extent of metal enrichment in the Ly alpha forest, we have analysed a very high S/N spectrum of the z = 3.625 QSO Q1422+231. We find that in high column density Ly alpha clouds, the power law column density…
It appears that the Lyman alpha forest is becoming thick at a redshift of about 5.5, cutting off the higher redshift intergalactic medium from view in neutral hydrogen. However, the effects of star formation at higher redshift are still…
(Abridged) Numerical simulations indicate that the intergalactic medium (IGM) responsible for the low column density Lyman-alpha forest follows a well defined temperature-density relation. We demonstrate that such an equation of state…