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arXiv 0709.2382astro-ph
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2<z<4.2星系际莱曼α不透明度的直接精密测量

A Direct Precision Measurement of the Intergalactic Lyman-alpha Opacity at 2<z<4.2

C. -A. Faucher-Giguere, J. X. Prochaska, A. Lidz, L. Hernquist, M. Zaldarriaga

摘要:

我们直接测量了星系际Lya有效光学厚度τ_eff在红移范围2<z<4.2内的演化,从86个高分辨率,高信噪比的类星体光谱样本中获得,这些光谱是用凯克的ESI和HIRES光谱仪以及麦哲伦的MIKE光谱仪获得的。这代表了一个改进,比以前的分析Lya森林从高分辨率光谱在这个红移间隔的一个因素的大小的数据集单独的两个。我们特别注意稳健的误差估计和广泛的测试系统的影响。我们发现,我们的估计类星体连续水平在Lya森林样条拟合得到系统偏置低,与红移增加的偏差的幅度,但这种偏差可以占使用模拟光谱。平均分数误差在z=2时<1%,在z=3时4%,在z=4时12%。先前在z>~3处对τ_eff的测量基于直接拟合Lya森林中的类星体连续体,通常忽略了这种影响,因此可能偏低。我们根据文献中的直接和统计金属去除结果,估计了Lya森林中金属的吸收水平,发现在z=3时,这种贡献约为6-9%,并随红移单调下降。我们的测量精度很高,在z=3附近,在宽度为Δ z=0.2的红移仓中达到了3%,这表明与最佳拟合的幂律红移演化(τ_eff=0.0018(1+z)^3.92,当金属留在其中时)有很大的偏离,特别是在z=3.2附近。观测到的向下偏离与Bernardi及其同事使用独立方法使用斯隆数字巡天光谱进行的精密统计测量中检测到的类似特征在统计上一致。

英文摘要:

We directly measure the evolution of the intergalactic Lya 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 the ESI and HIRES spectrographs on Keck, and with the MIKE spectrograph on Magellan. This represents an improvement over previous analyses of the Lya forest from high-resolution spectra in this redshift interval of a factor of two in the size of the data set alone. We pay particular attention to robust error estimation and extensively test for systematic effects. We find that our estimates of the quasar continuum levels in the Lya forest obtained by spline fitting are systematically biased low, with the magnitude of the bias increasing with redshift, but that this bias can be accounted for using mock spectra. The mean fractional error is <1% at z=2, 4% at z=3, and 12% at z=4. Previous measurements of tau_eff at z>~3 based on directly fitting the quasar continua in the Lya forest, which have generally neglected this effect, are therefore likely biased low. We provide estimates of the level of absorption arising from metals in the Lya forest based on both direct and statistical metal removal results in the literature, finding that this contribution is ~6-9% at z=3 and decreases monotonically with redshift. The high precision of our measurement, attaining 3% in redshift bins of width Delta z=0.2 around z=3, indicates significant departures from the best-fit power-law redshift evolution (tau_eff=0.0018(1+z)^3.92, when metals are left in), particularly near z=3.2. The observed downward departure is statistically consistent with a similar feature detected in a precision statistical measurement using Sloan Digital Sky Survey spectra by Bernardi and coworkers using an independent approach.

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