相关论文: The case against large intensity fluctuations in t…
The large number of quasars found in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey has allowed searches for elusive, clear lines of sight towards HeII Ly-alpha absorption, a sensitive probe of the intergalactic medium. The few known systems indicate that…
In gravitational instability models, there is a close relationship between most Lyman-alpha absorption and the matter density along the line of sight. Croft et al. (1997) have shown that it is possible to use this relationship with some…
Fluctuations in Lyman-$\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$) forest transmission towards high-$z$ quasars are partially sourced from spatial fluctuations in the ultraviolet background (UVB), the level of which are set by the mean free path of ionizing…
Recent observations of the Lyman-alpha forest show large-scale spatial variations in the intergalactic Lyman-alpha opacity that grow rapidly with redshift at z>5, far in excess of expectations from empirically motivated models. Previous…
The Lyman-alpha forest is the large-scale structure probe for which we appear to have modeling control to the highest wavenumbers. This makes the Lyman-alpha forest of great interest for constraining the warmness/fuzziness of dark matter…
We use a new method to model fluctuations of the Lyman-Werner (LW) and Lyman-alpha radiation backgrounds at high redshift. At these early epochs the backgrounds are symptoms of a universe newly lit with its first stars. LW photons…
The average flux decrement shortward the Ly$_{\alpha}$ emission, due to the well-known ``forest'' of absorptions, has been measured in the spectra of 8 quasars. Quasi-simultaneous optical and IUE observations of the two low redshift quasars…
We directly measure the evolution of the intergalactic Lyman-alpha effective optical depth, tau_eff, over the redshift range 2<z<4.2 from a sample of 86 high-resolution, high-signal-to-noise quasar spectra obtained with Keck/ESI,…
At redshifts z_abs < 2, quasar absorption-line constraints on space-time variations in the fine-structure constant, alpha, rely on the comparison of MgII and FeII transition wavelengths. One potentially important uncertainty is the relative…
This paper describes a study of the Lyman-alpha forest absorption clouds along the quasar sightline Q0000-26 (zem=4.1). The spectrum was obtained with the High Resolution Spectrometer on the 10m Keck telescope. We derive accurate H I column…
We report the detection of extended Halpha emission from the tip of the HI disk of the nearby edge-on galaxy UGC 7321, observed with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument at the Very Large Telescope. The Halpha surface…
We show that the Lyman-alpha optical depth statistics in the proximity regions of quasar spectra depend on the mass of the dark matter halos hosting the quasars. This is owing to both the overdensity around the quasars and the associated…
Understanding the sources responsible for reionizing the Universe is a key goal of observational cosmology. A discrepancy has existed between the metagalactic hydrogen ionization rate, Gamma_HI, predicted by early hydrodynamical simulations…
Observationally mapping the relation between galaxies and the intergalactic medium (IGM) is of key interest for studies of cosmic reionization. Diffuse hydrogen gas has typically been observed in HI Lyman-$\alpha$ (Ly$\alpha$) absorption in…
The Lyman-$\alpha$ forest opacity fluctuations observed from high-redshift quasar spectra have been proven to be extremely successful in order to probe the late phase of the reionization epoch. For ideal modeling of these opacity…
We present a formalism for computing time-dependent fluctuations in the cosmological photoionizing radiation background, extending background fluctuations models beyond the steady-state approximation. We apply this formalism to estimate…
I discuss fluctuations in the neutral hydrogen (HI) density of the z~2.3 intergalactic medium and show that their relation to cosmic overdensity is strongly scale-dependent. This behaviour arises from a linearized version of the well-known…
The epoch of hydrogen reionization is complete by $z=5$, but its progression at higher redshifts is uncertain. Measurements of Ly$\alpha$ forest opacity show large scatter at $z<6$, suggestive of spatial fluctuations in neutral fraction…
Previous studies have noted difficulties in modeling the highest opacities of the $z>5.5$ Ly$\alpha$ forest, epitomized by the extreme Ly$\alpha$ trough observed towards quasar ULAS J0148+0600. One possibility is that the most opaque…
The intergalactic medium (IGM) around quasars is shaped by their dense environments and by their excess ionizing radiation, forming a "quasar proximity zone" whose size and anisotropy depend on the quasar's halo mass, luminosity, age, and…