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arXiv 0705.3558astro-ph
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用类星体近带探测星系际介质中性氢的进一步研究

A closer look at using quasar near-zones as a probe of neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium

James S. Bolton, Martin G. Haehnelt

摘要:

我们研究了一个大的合成类星体光谱,以现实地评估使用高度电离的Lya和Lyb森林近区的相对大小作为探测z>6的星系际介质(IGM)的中性氢含量的潜力。在相对近区尺寸分布的散射,引起的重子密度场和电离辐射的过滤的基本波动,是相当大的,即使固定的假设IGM中性分数。因此,目前的观测数据不能区分IGM是显著中性的还是高度电离的z=6以上。在类星体年龄和电离光度的标准假设下,未来几十个高分辨率Lya和Lyb近区光谱的样本应该能够区分IGM中大于或小于10%的体积加权中性氢分数。

英文摘要:

We examine a large set of synthetic quasar spectra to realistically assess the potential of using the relative sizes of highly ionized near-zones in the Lya and Lyb forest as a probe of the neutral hydrogen content of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at z>6. The scatter in the relative near-zone size distribution, induced by underlying fluctuations in the baryonic density field and the filtering of ionizing radiation, is considerable even for fixed assumptions about the IGM neutral fraction. As a consequence, the current observational data cannot distinguish between an IGM which is significantly neutral or highly ionized just above z=6. Under standard assumptions for quasar ages and ionizing luminosities, a future sample of several tens of high resolution Lya and Lyb near-zone spectra should be capable of distinguishing between a volume weighted neutral hydrogen fraction in the IGM which is greater or less than 10 per cent.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

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