Correlation between the variations of quasar absorption lines and the ionizing continuum have been recently confirmed in systematic studies. However, no convincing individual case is reported. We present a statistical analysis of the variable C iv broad absorption line (BAL) in the quasar SDSS J141007.74+541203.3, which have been observed with 44 epochs by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 14. Grier et al. (2015) has recently concluded that the most likely cause of the variability of the BAL in SDSS J141007.74+541203.3 is a rapid response to changes in the incident ionizing continuum. In this paper, we confirm the anticorrelation between the equivalent width of BALs and the flux of the continuum based on the spectra of this quasar that show significant variations, which serve as another independent evidence for the view of Grier et al. (2015).
Galaxy integrated Hα star formation rate-stellar mass relation, or SFR(global)-M*(global) relation, is crucial for understanding star formation history and evolution of galaxies. However, many studies have dealt with SFR using unresolved measurements, which makes it difficult to separate out the contamination from other ionizing sources, such as active galactic nuclei and evolved stars. Using the integral field spectroscopic observations from SDSS-IV MaNGA, we spatially disentangle the contribution from different Hα powering sources for ~1000 galaxies. We find that, when including regions domi…
One of the major challenges in observational cosmology is related to the redshift evolution of the average hydrogen ionization in the Universe. In order to probe the ionization level of the IGM and the ionization capabilities of bright QSOs at z=4, we have selected a sample of 2508 QSOs from the SDSS survey (DR14) at 3.6<z<4.6 and -29.0<M1450<-26.0. Starting from UV/optical rest-frame spectra of the whole QSO sample, we estimate the escape fraction and free path individually for each of them. We calculate the Lyman Continuum (LyC) escape fraction as the flux ratio blue-ward (~900 A rest-frame)…
SDSS-V LVM: Detectability of Wolf-Rayet stars and their He II ionizing flux in low-metallicity environments I. The weak-lined, early-type WN3 stars in the SMC
One of the most important parameters in characterizing the Epoch of Reionization, the escape fraction of ionizing photons, $f_\mathrm{esc}$, remains unconstrained both observationally and theoretically. With recent work highlighting the impact of galaxy-scale feedback on the instantaneous value of $f_\mathrm{esc}$, it is important to develop a model in which reionization is self-consistently coupled to galaxy evolution. In this work, we present such a model and explore how physically motivated functional forms of $f_\mathrm{esc}$ affect the evolution of ionized hydrogen within the intergalacti…
The large-scale structure of the ionization field during the epoch of reionization (EoR) can be modeled by the excursion set theory. While the growth of ionized regions during the early stage are described by the "bubble model", the shrinking process of neutral regions after the percolation of the ionized region calls for an "island model". An excursion set based analytical model and a semi-numerical code (islandFAST) have been developed. The ionizing background and the bubbles inside the islands are also included in the treatment. With two kinds of absorbers of ionizing photons, i.e. the larg…
Gaia is regularly producing Alerts on objects where photometric variability has been detected. The physical nature of these objects has often to be determined with the complementary observations from ground-based facilities. We have compared the list of Gaia Alerts (until 20181101) with archival LAMOST and SDSS spectroscopic data. The date of the ground-based observation rarely corresponds to the date of the Alert, but this allows at least the identification of the source if it is persistent, or the host galaxy if the object was only transient like a supernova. A list of Gaia Nuclear Transient…
Correlation between the variation of the ionizing continuum and broad absorption lines
在这封信中，我们提出了一个宽吸收线（BALs）和连续的可变性之间的关系的分析。我们的样本是斯隆数字巡天I/II/III（SDSS-I/II/III）对483个类星体的多历元观测。我们推导出的分数通量变化的连续和分数等效宽度（EW）的变化为C IV和Si IV BALs，并探讨三者之间的相关性。我们的研究结果揭示了中等的CIV和Si IV BALs的连续分数通量变化和分数EW变化之间的高显着性水平的EFT关系。我们还证明了C IV和Si IV BALs的分数EW变化之间的显着正相关性，这与以前的几项研究一致。我们的发现可以作为证据的想法：电离连续体的变化是BAL变异性的主要驱动力。
In this work, the sixth of a series, we use the ASTRAEUS (semi-numerical rAdiative tranSfer coupling of galaxy formaTion and Reionization in N-body dark matter simUlationS) framework to investigate the nature of the sources that reionized the Universe. We extend ASTRAEUS, which already couples a galaxy formation semi-analytical model with a detailed semi-numerical reionization scheme, to include a model for black hole formation, growth, and the production of ionizing radiation from associated AGN (active galactic nuclei). We calibrate our fiducial AGN model to reproduce the bolometric luminosi…
Stacking PANCAKEZ: sPectroscopic Analysis with NirspeC stAcKs in the Epoch of reioniZation. Weak ISM Absorption and Implications for Ionizing Photon Escape at $z\sim7$
We spectroscopically confirmed two narrow-band selected redshift 7.0 Ly$α$ galaxies and studied their restframe UV spectra. The Ly$α$ and other UV nebular lines are very useful to confirm the galactic redshifts and diagnose the different mechanisms driving the ionizing emission. We observed two narrowband-selected $z$=7.0 Ly$α$ candidates in the LAGER Chandra Deep Field South (CDFS) field with IMACS at Magellan telescope and confirmed they are Ly$α$ emitters at $z$=6.924 and 6.931. In one galaxy, we also obtained deep NIR spectroscopy, which yields non-detections of the high-ionization UV nebu…
REBELS-IFU: Spatially Resolved Ionizing Photon Production Efficiencies of 12 Bright Galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization
Universitat de València（瓦伦西亚大学）；Instituto de Física de Cantabria（坎塔布里亚物理研究所）；Academia Sinica（中央研究院）；Universidad Diego Portales（迭戈·波特莱斯大学）；Leiden University（莱顿大学）；The University of Manchester（曼彻斯特大学）；University of Western Australia（西澳大利亚大学）
Motivated by evidences favoring a rapid and late hydrogen reionization process completing at z~5.2-5.5 and mainly driven by rare and luminous sources, we have reassessed the estimate of the space density of ultra-luminous QSOs at z~5 in the framework of the QUBRICS survey. A ~90% complete sample of 14 spectroscopically confirmed QSOs at M1450<-28.3 and 4.5<z<5.0 has been derived in an area of 12,400 sq. deg., thanks to multi-wavelength selection and GAIA astrometry. The space density of z~5 QSOs within -29.3<M1450<-28.3 is three times higher than previous determinations. Our results suggest a …
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) NIRSpec instrument will allow rest-frame ultraviolet/optical spectroscopy of galaxies in the epoch of reionization (EoR). Some galaxies may exhibit significant leakage of hydrogen-ionizing photons into the intergalactic medium, resulting in faint nebular emission lines. We present a machine learning framework for identifying cases of very high hydrogen-ionizing photon escape from galaxies based on the data quality expected from potential NIRSpec observations of EoR galaxies in lensed fields. We train our algorithm on mock samples of JWST/NIRSpec data for g…
We report on deep XMM-Newton and NuSTAR observations of the high redshift, z=2.94, extremely red quasar (ERQ), SDSS J165202.60+172852.4, with known galactic ionized outflows detected via spatially-resolved [OIII] emission lines. X-ray observations allow us to directly probe the accretion disk luminosity and the geometry and scale of the circumnuclear obscuration. We fit the spectra from the XMM-Newton/EPIC and NuSTAR detectors with a physically motivated torus model and constrain the source to exhibit a near Compton-thick column density of $N_H=(1.02^{+0.76}_{-0.41})\times10^{24}\textrm{ cm}^{…
Chemical abundance determinations in Low-Ionization Nuclear Line Regions (LINERs) are especially complex and uncertain because the nature of the ionizing source of this kind of object is unknown. In this work, we study the oxygen abundance in relation to the hydrogen abundance (O/H) of the gas phase of the UGC4805 LINER nucleus. Optical spectroscopic data from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies (MaNGA) survey was employed to derive the O/H abundance of the UGC4805 nucleus based on the extrapolation of the disk abundance gradient, on calibrations between O/H abundance and strong emission-lines for Act…
We discover the significant (significance level of >99%) correlations between the fractional variation of the ionizing continuum and that of the C IV and/or Si IV BALs in each of 21 BAL quasars that have at least five-epoch observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-I/II/III. This result reveals that the fluctuation of the ionizing continuum is the driver of most of these BAL variations. Among them, 17 show negative correlations and the other 4 positive correlations, which agrees with the prediction of photoionization models that absorption line variability response to ionization changes i…
We fit theoretical models to the emission-line spectra of 2766 Seyfert galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The model line fluxes are derived by `mixing' photoionization model predictions of active galactic nucleus (AGN) narrow line region (NLR) emission and HII region emission. The observed line fluxes in each spectrum were directly compared to the grid of mixed models using the Bayesian parameter estimation code NebulaBayes, thereby measuring the degree of mixing in each spectrum for the first time. We find that the majority of the Balmer line emission in the majority of Seyfer…
Local star-forming galaxies show properties that are thought to differ from galaxies in the early Universe. Among them, the ionizing stellar populations and the gas geometry make the recipes designed to derive chemical abundances from nebular emission lines to differ from those calibrated in the Local Universe. A sample of 1969 Extreme Emission Line Galaxies (EELGs) at a redshift 0 < z < 0.49, selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to be local analogues of high-redshift galaxies, was used to analyze their most prominent emission lines and to derive total oxygen abundances and nitrog…
Active galactic nuclei (AGN) can vary significantly in their rest-frame optical/UV continuum emission, and with strong associated changes in broad line emission, on much shorter timescales than predicted by standard models of accretion disks around supermassive black holes. Most such ``changing-look'' or "changing-state" AGN -- and at higher luminosities, changing-look quasars (CLQs) -- have been found via spectroscopic follow-up of known quasars showing strong photometric variability. The Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey of SDSS-IV includes repeat spectroscopy of large numbers of previously-k…
Galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization Are All Bark and No Bite -- Plenty of Ionizing Photons, Low Escape Fractions
Texas A&M University（德州农工大学）；George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, Texas A&M University（乔治·P·和辛西娅·伍兹基础物理与天文学研究所，德州农工大学）；The University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）
The exact role of quasars during the Epoch of Reionization remains uncertain. With consensus leaning towards quasars producing a negligible amount of ionizing photons, we pose an alternate question: Can quasars indirectly contribute to reionization by allowing ionizing photons from stars to escape more easily? Using the Semi-Analytic Galaxy Evolution model to evolve a galaxy population through cosmic time, we construct an idealized scenario in which the escape fraction of stellar ionizing photons ($f_\mathrm{esc}$) is boosted following quasar wind events, potentially for several dynamical time…
Ionizing photons must have escaped from high-redshift galaxies, but the neutral high-redshift intergalactic medium makes it unlikely to directly detect these photons during the Epoch of Reionization. Indirect methods of studying ionizing photon escape fractions present a way to infer how the first galaxies may have reionized the universe. Here, we use HET/LRS2 observations of J0919+4906, a confirmed z$\approx$0.4 emitter of ionizing photons to achieve spatially resolved (12.5 kpc in diameter) spectroscopy of \ion{Mg}{II}$\lambda2796$, \ion{Mg}{II}$\lambda2803$, [\ion{O}{II}]$λ\lambda3727,3729$…
Spatially resolved H$α$ emission in B14-65666: compact starbursts, ionizing efficiency and gas kinematics in an advanced merger at the Epoch of Reionization
A GLIMPSE into the UV Continuum Slopes of the Faintest Galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization
The University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）；Cosmic Frontier Center, The University of Texas at Austin（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校宇宙前沿中心）；Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne Université（巴黎天体物理研究所，法国国家科学研究中心，索邦大学）；Tufts University（塔夫茨大学）；David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto（多伦多大学戴维·A·邓拉普天文与天体物理系）
We isolate a set of quasars that exhibit emergent C iv broad absorption lines (BALs) in their spectra by comparing spectra in the SDSS Data Release 7 and the SDSS/BOSS Data Releases 9 and 10. After visually defining a set of emergent BALs, follow-up observations were obtained with the Gemini Observatory for 105 quasars. We find an emergence rate consistent with the previously reported disappearance rate of BAL quasars given the relative numbers of non-BAL and BAL quasars in the SDSS. We find candidate newly emerged BALs are preferentially drawn from among BALs with smaller balnicity indices, s…
In the last few years, prominent high-ionization nebular emission lines (i.e., OIII], CIII], CIV, HeII) have been observed in the deep UV spectra of z~5-7 galaxies, indicating that extreme radiation fields characterize reionization-era systems. These lines have been linked to the leakage of Lyman continuum photons both theoretically and observationally. Consequently, high-ionization UV emission lines present our best probe to detect and characterize the most distant galaxies that we will observe in the coming years, and are key to understanding the sources of reionization, yet the physics gove…
Strong Optical and UV Intermediate-Width Emission Lines in the Quasar SDSS J232444.80-094600.3: Dust-Free and Intermediate-Density Gas at the Skin of Dusty Torus ?
The connection between the escape fraction of ionizing radiation ($f_{esc}$) and the properties of galaxies, such as stellar mass (M*), age, star-formation rate (SFR), and dust content, are key inputs for reionization models, but many of these relationships remain untested at high redshift. We present an analysis of a sample of 96 z~3 galaxies from the Keck Lyman Continuum Spectroscopic Survey (KLCS). These galaxies have both sensitive Keck/LRIS spectroscopic measurements of the Lyman continuum (LyC) region, and multi-band photometry that places constraints on stellar population parameters. We…
Emission-line Diagnostics at $z\gtrsim 2$: A Probe of the Ionizing Spectrum and $α$ Enhancement Beyond Cosmic Noon
University of California, Los Angeles（加州大学洛杉矶分校）；Steward Observatory, University of Arizona（亚利桑那大学斯图尔德天文台）；Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN)（宇宙黎明中心）；Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen（哥本哈根大学尼尔斯玻尔研究所）；University of Kentucky（肯塔基大学）；Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of California, Riverside（加州大学河滨分校物理与天文学系）
We have performed a spectral decomposition to search for dual active galactic nuclei (DAGNs) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasars with $z<0.25$. Potential DAGN candidates are searched by referencing velocity offsets and spectral shapes of double-peaked [O III] lines of known DAGNs. Out of 1271 SDSS quasars, we have identified 77 DAGN candidates. Optical and mid-infrared diagnostic diagrams are used to investigate the ionizing source in the DAGN candidates. The optical diagnostic analysis suggests 93\% of them are powered by AGNs, and mid-infrared diagnostic analysis suggests 97\% are…
Variation of ionizing continuum: the main driver of Broad Absorption Line Variability
我们提出了一个统计分析的变化宽吸收线（BALs）的类星体使用大型多历元光谱数据集的斯隆数字巡天数据发布12（SDSS DR 12）。我们将样品分为两组，根据的变化模式的C iv BAL相对于连续体：的等效宽度（EW）的BAL减少（增加）时，连续体变亮（变暗）的T1组和EW和连续体的变化在相反的关系作为T2组。我们发现，T2组的Si iv与C iv BAL的EW比值（R）显著高于T1组（P_T<10-6，Students T检验）。我们的结果与光电离模型的预测一致，即如果有（或没有）C +3电离前沿，C +3柱密度增加（减少），而R随入射连续谱而减少。我们发现，在至少80%的类星体中，BAL变异是由电离连续体的变化驱动的，而其他预测不相关的BAL和连续体变异的模型贡献不到20%。考虑到连续通量校准中的大不确定性，后一部分可能小得多。当样本被分到两个观测之间的不同时间间隔时，我们发现在所有时间段内T1和T2之间的R分布差异显著，Δ T < 6天，这表明在一部分类星体中的BAL流出只有几天的重组时间尺度。
The Redshifted Hydrogen Balmer and Metastable He I Absorption Line System in Mini-FeLoBAL Quasar SDSS J112526.12+002901.3: A Parsec Scale Accretion Inflow?
In this manuscript, we report a new changing-look QSO (CLQSO) SDSS J2241 at $z=0.059$. Based on the multi-epoch SDSS spectra from 2011 to 2017, the flux ratio of broad H$α$ to broad H$β$ has been changed from 7\ in 2011 to 2.7\ in 2017, leading SDSS J2241 with spectral index $α_λ\sim-5.21\pm0.02$ ($λ< 4000$Å) in 2017 to be so-far the bluest CLQSO. Based on the SDSS spectrum in 2011, the host galaxy contributions with stellar velocity dispersion $\sim86{\rm km/s}$ can be well determined, leading to the M-sigma relation expected central BH mass $\sim3\times10^6{\rm M_\odot}$. However, through pr…
The reionization of the Universe ends the dark ages that started after the recombination era. In the case of H, reionization finishes around $z\sim 6$. Faint star-forming galaxies are the best candidate sources of the H-ionizing radiation, although active galactic nuclei may have also contributed. We have explored whether the termination regions of the jets from active galactic nuclei may have contributed significantly to the ionization of H in the late reionization epoch, around $z\sim 6-7$. We assumed that, as it has been proposed, active galactic nuclei at $z\sim 6$ may have presented a hig…
HST's Deep Blue: extremely deep UV imaging to reveal the contributors to reionization
Space Telescope Science Institute（太空望远镜科学研究所）；Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, CNES, LAM (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille)（艾克斯-马赛大学，法国国家科学研究中心，法国国家空间研究中心，马赛天体物理实验室）；Stockholm University, Department of Astronomy and Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics（斯德哥尔摩大学，天文学系与奥斯卡·克莱因宇宙粒子物理中心）；Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota（明尼苏达大学物理与天文学院天体物理研究所）；Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne Université（巴黎天体物理研究所，法国国家科学研究中心，索邦大学）；IPAC, California Institute of Technology（加州理工学院红外处理与分析中心）；Dipartimento di Fisica “G. Occhialini”, Universitá degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca（米兰比可卡大学“G.奥恰利尼”物理系）；Department of Astronomy, University of Geneva（日内瓦大学天文学系）
