相关论文: Omega_baryon and the Geometry of Intermediate Reds…
The low-redshift Ly-alpha forest of absorption lines provides a probe of large-scale baryonic structures in the intergalactic medium, some of which may be remnants of physical conditions set up during the epoch of galaxy formation. We…
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…
We analyze high-redshift structure in three hydrodynamic simulations that have identical initial conditions and cosmological parameters and differ only in the value of the baryon density parameter, Omega_b=0.02, 0.05, 0.125. Increasing…
We have measured the distribution function of the flux decrement caused by Lyman alpha forest absorption in a new sample of high resolution QSO spectra. The observations are compared to the results from two simulations of the Lya forest: an…
Straightforward physical arguments are used to derive the properties of Lyman-alpha forest absorbers. It is shown that many aspects of the current physical picture of the forest, in particular the fact that the absorption arises in extended…
I discuss recent HST observations and interpretation of low-z Ly-alpha clouds toward nearby Seyferts and QSOs, including their frequency, space density, estimated mass, association with galaxies, and contribution to Omega_b. Our HST/GHRS…
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 have conducted pointed redshift surveys for galaxies in the direction of bright AGN whose HST far-UV spectra contain nearby (cz <~ 30,000 kms), low column density (12.5 <= log N_{HI} (cm s^{-2}) <= 14.5) Ly-alpha forest absorption…
A new method to extract Omega_b from high redshift intergalactic absorption is described, based on the distribution of HeII Ly-alpha optical depths in the voids in the ionization zone of quasars. A preliminary estimate from recent HST-STIS…
A scenario is explored in which Lyman alpha absorbers at low redshift arise from lines of sight through extended galaxy disks, including those of dwarf and low surface brightness galaxies. A population of galaxies is simulated based upon…
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…
Observations of redshifted Lyman alpha forest absorption in the spectra of quasistellar objects (QSOs) provide a highly sensitive probe of the distribution of gaseous matter in the universe. Over the past two decades optical spectroscopy…
We present a model for the Lyman-alpha absorbers that treats all objects (from the low-density forest clouds to the dense damped systems) in a unified description. This approach is consistent with an earlier model of galaxies (luminosity…
We reassess constraints on the cosmological baryon density from observations of the mean decrement and power spectrum of the Lyman-alpha forest, taking into account uncertainties in all free parameters in the simplest gravitational…
We briefly discuss the relevance of Lyman alpha forest observations for measuring cosmological parameters, comparing the properties of high z QSO spectra with those of artifical spectra from hydrodynamic simulations, based on hierarchical…
We have performed high-resolution hydrodynamic simulations of the Lyman-alpha forest in a variety of popular cold dark matter dominated cosmologies, including a low density and a vacuum-dominated model. The fluctuation amplitude of these…
In Paper I of this series (astro-ph/9911117) we described observations of 15 extragalactic targets taken with the Hubble Space Telescope GHRS/G160M grating for studies of the low-z Lya forest. We reported the detection of 110 Lya absorbers…
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'…
Intergalactic absorbers along lines of sight to distant quasars are a powerful diagnostic for the evolution and content of the IGM. In this study, we search known low-z Ly-alpha absorption systems for equivalent absorption in higher Lyman…
The proximity effect of metal line absorption systems in spectra of high redshift quasars and quasar pairs is investigated through the distribution of \Lyalpha forests. No strong proximity effect is found down to 500 km/sec away from a…