Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 451, Issue 1, Pages 904-916Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stv980
Keywords
methods: numerical; galaxies: formation; galaxies: high-redshift; quasars: absorption lines
Categories
Funding
- NSF [AST-0908063]
- NASA [NNX-09AJ54G]
- Fermilab
- Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
- University of Chicago
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In this work, I investigate the properties of Lyman limit systems (LLSs) using state-of-the-art zoom-in cosmological galaxy formation simulations with on the fly radiative transfer, which includes both the cosmic UV background (UVB) and local stellar sources. I compare the simulation results to observations of the incidence frequency of LLSs and the H i column density distribution function over the redshift range z = 2-5 and find good agreement. I explore the connection between LLSs and their host haloes and find that LLSs reside in haloes with a wide range of halo masses with a nearly constant covering fraction within a virial radius. Over the range z = 2-5, I find that more than half of the LLSs reside in haloes with M < 10(10) h(-1) M-circle dot, indicating that absorption line studies of LLSs can probe these low-mass galaxies which H-2-based star formation models predict to have very little star formation. I study the physical state of individual LLSs and test a simple model which encapsulates many of their properties. I confirm that LLSs have a characteristic absorption length given by the Jeans length and that they are in photoionization equilibrium at low column densities. Finally, I investigate the self-shielding of LLSs to the UVB and explore how the non-sphericity of LLSs affects the photoionization rate at a given NH. I find that at z 3, LLSs have an optical depth of unity at a column density of similar to 10(18) cm(-2) and that this is the column density which characterizes the onset of self-shielding.
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