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arXiv 1101.1964astro-ph.CO
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Lyman极限系统与星系际电离背景的演化

On Lyman-limit Systems and the Evolution of the Intergalactic Ionizing Background

Matthew McQuinn, S. Peng Oh, C. -A. Faucher-Giguere

摘要:

我们研究了自屏蔽星系际吸收系统的性质及其对电离背景的影响。我们发现,宇宙学模拟后处理详细的辐射转移计算一般能够再现观测到的丰富的莱曼极限系统,我们强调可能的观测和模拟之间的差异。这个比较测试了在~100的超密度下的宇宙学模拟。此外,我们表明,在这些模拟中的莱曼极限系统的属性,在简单的半解析参数,并建议由最近的观测表明,一个小的变化,电离辐射源会导致一个更大的变化幅度的星系际HI电离背景(与此缩放加强增加红移)。这种强烈的缩放可以解释在z = 6处观察到的莱曼α森林传输的快速演变。我们的计算结果与简单模型的建议一致,即共动电离发射率是恒定的,甚至从z = 3到6增加。我们的计算还提供了一个更严格的估计比以前的研究星系际气体的聚集因子再电离后,我们估计是2 - 3在z = 6。

英文摘要:

We study the properties of self-shielding intergalactic absorption systems and their implications for the ionizing background. We find that cosmological simulations post-processed with detailed radiative transfer calculations generally are able to reproduce the observed abundance of Lyman-limit systems, and we highlight possible discrepancies between the observations and simulations. This comparison tests cosmological simulations at overdensities of ~100. Furthermore, we show that the properties of Lyman-limit systems in these simulations, in simple semi-analytic arguments, and as suggested by recent observations indicate that a small change in the ionizing emissivity of the sources would have resulted in a much larger change in the amplitude of the intergalactic HI-ionizing background (with this scaling strengthening with increasing redshift). This strong scaling could explain the rapid evolution in the Lyman-alpha forest transmission observed at z = 6. Our calculations agree with the suggestion of simpler models that the comoving ionizing emissivity was constant or even increasing from z = 3 to 6. Our calculations also provide a more rigorous estimate than in previous studies for the clumping factor of intergalactic gas after reionization, which we estimate was 2 - 3 at z = 6.

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