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arXiv 1201.5641astro-ph.CO
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低红移下温热气体的吸收特征:宽HI莱曼α吸收体

Absorption signatures of warm-hot gas at low redshift: Broad HI Lyman-Alpha Absorbers

Thorsten Tepper-García, Philipp Richter, Joop Schaye, Craig M. Booth, Claudio Dalla Vecchia, Tom Theuns

摘要:

我们使用OWLS项目的宇宙学流体动力学模拟子集研究了低红移(z = 0.25)下HI吸收气体的物理状态,特别关注宽(bHI> 40 km/s)HI Lyman-Alpha吸收体(BLA),这些吸收体被认为起源于温热星系际介质(WHIM)中的激波加热气体。我们的基准模型,其中包括重元素的辐射冷却和超新星和活动星系核的反馈,预测到z = 0.25,近60%的气体质量最终达到WHIM的密度和温度特征,我们发现这部分的一半是由于流出。用模拟方法计算的标准HI观测量(HI柱密度分布N_HI、多普勒参数分布b_HI、b_HI-N_HI相关)和BLA线数密度与观测值符合得很好。BLA产生于比产生典型莱曼-阿尔法森林吸收器的气体更热、更高度电离和更富集的气体中。大多数BLA产生于低过密度(log Delta < 1.5)的温热(log(T/K)~ 5)气体中。平均而言,热加宽至少占BLA线宽的60%,这反过来又可以用作气体热状态的粗略指标。在低红移时,可探测的BLA只占WHIM真实重子含量的一小部分。为了检测该气相中的大部分质量,需要比当前紫外光谱仪所实现的灵敏度好至少一个数量级。我们认为,BLAs主要是跟踪气体已被冲击加热和丰富的外流,因此,他们提供了一个很好的理解反馈过程的重要窗口。

英文摘要:

We investigate the physical state of HI absorbing gas at low redshift (z = 0.25) using a subset of cosmological, hydrodynamic simulations from the OWLS project, focusing in particular on broad (b_HI > 40 km/s) HI Lyman-Alpha absorbers (BLAs), which are believed to originate in shock-heated gas in the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM). Our fiducial model, which includes radiative cooling by heavy elements and feedback by supernovae and active galactic nuclei, predicts that by z = 0.25 nearly 60 per cent of the gas mass ends up at densities and temperatures characteristic of the WHIM and we find that half of this fraction is due to outflows. The standard HI observables (distribution of HI column densities N_HI, distribution of Doppler parameters b_HI, b_HI - N_HI correlation) and the BLA line number density predicted by our simulations are in remarkably good agreement with observations. BLAs arise in gas that is hotter, more highly ionised and more enriched than the gas giving rise to typical Lyman-Alpha forest absorbers. The majority of the BLAs arise in warm-hot (log (T/K) ~ 5) gas at low (log Delta < 1.5) overdensities. On average, thermal broadening accounts for at least 60 per cent of the BLA line width, which in turn can be used as a rough indicator of the thermal state of the gas. Detectable BLAs account for only a small fraction of the true baryon content of the WHIM at low redshift. In order to detect the bulk of the mass in this gas phase, a sensitivity at least one order of magnitude better than achieved by current ultraviolet spectrographs is required. We argue that BLAs mostly trace gas that has been shock-heated and enriched by outflows and that they therefore provide an important window on a poorly understood feedback process.

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