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arXiv 1003.0016astro-ph.CO
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z ~ 6类星体的电离近带

Ionization near-zones associated with quasars at z ~ 6

C. L. Carilli, Ran Wang, X. Fan, F. Walter, J. Kurk, D. Riechers, J. Wagg, J. Hennawi, L. Jiang, K. M. Menten, F. Bertoldi, Michael A. Strauss, P. Cox

摘要:

我们分析了z=5.7至6.4(“类星体近带”或NZ)之间27个类星体周围HII区域的大小演化。我们包括更多的来源比以前的研究,我们使用更准确的红移的主机星系,8 CO分子线红移和9镁II红移。我们证实了随着红移的减小,NZ尺寸增加的趋势,亮度归一化的适当尺寸演化为:R_{NZ,corrected} =(7.4 \pm 0.3)-(8.0 \pm 1.1)\times(z-6)Mpc。虽然用这种技术推导绝对中性部分仍然很困难,但NZ尺寸的演变表明,在最简单的解释中,星系际氢的中性部分从z=6.4到5.7减少了约9.4倍。或者,最近的数值模拟表明,这种快速增加,在近区的大小从z=6.4到5.7是由于快速增加的背景光电离率在渗滤或重叠阶段结束时,电离光子的平均平均自由程显着增加。无论哪种情况,结果都与z ~ 6到7对应于宇宙再电离尾端的想法一致。归一化新西兰大小的散射比仅仅从测量误差中预期的要大,并且可能反映了类星体或其环境的内在差异。我们发现,近区的大小增加类星体的紫外光度,如预期的光电离为主的类星体辐射。

英文摘要:

We analyze the size evolution of HII regions around 27 quasars between z=5.7 to 6.4 ('quasar near-zones' or NZ). We include more sources than previous studies, and we use more accurate redshifts for the host galaxies, with 8 CO molecular line redshifts and 9 MgII redshifts. We confirm the trend for an increase in NZ size with decreasing redshift, with the luminosity normalized proper size evolving as: R_{NZ,corrected} = (7.4 \pm 0.3) - (8.0 \pm 1.1) \times (z-6) Mpc. While derivation of the absolute neutral fraction remains difficult with this technique, the evolution of the NZ sizes suggests a decrease in the neutral fraction of intergalactic hydrogen by a factor ~ 9.4 from z=6.4 to 5.7, in its simplest interpretation. Alternatively, recent numerical simulations suggest that this rapid increase in near-zone size from z=6.4 to 5.7 is due to the rapid increase in the background photo-ionization rate at the end of the percolation or overlap phase, when the average mean free path of ionizing photons increases dramatically. In either case, the results are consistent with the idea that z ~ 6 to 7 corresponds to the tail end of cosmic reionization. The scatter in the normalized NZ sizes is larger than expected simply from measurement errors, and likely reflects intrinsic differences in the quasars or their environments. We find that the near-zone sizes increase with quasar UV luminosity, as expected for photo-ionization dominated by quasar radiation.

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