Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 935, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
IOP Publishing Ltd
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac7b2e
Keywords
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Categories
Funding
- National Key R&D Program of China [2018YFA0404503]
- China Scholarship Council [201804910563]
- NSF [AST-2007499]
- Center for High Performance Computing at the University of Utah
- National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) - Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) [2020R1A2C1005655]
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science
- Brazilian Participation Group
- Carnegie Institution for Science
- Carnegie Mellon University
- Center for Astrophysics | Harvard Smithsonian
- Chilean Participation Group
- French Participation Group
- Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias
- Johns Hopkins University
- Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU)/University of Tokyo
- Korean Participation Group
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
- Leibniz Institut fur Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP)
- Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie (MPIA Heidelberg)
- Max-Planck-Institut fur Astrophysik (MPA Garching)
- Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE)
- National Astronomical Observatories of China
- New Mexico State University
- New York University
- University of Notre Dame
- Observatario Nacional/MCTI
- Ohio State University
- Pennsylvania State University
- Shanghai Astronomical Observatory
- United Kingdom Participation Group
- Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico
- University of Arizona
- University of Colorado Boulder
- University of Oxford
- University of Portsmouth
- University of Utah
- University of Virginia
- University of Washington
- University of Wisconsin
- Vanderbilt University
- Yale University
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We investigate the metal species associated with the Ly alpha forest in eBOSS quasar spectra. Up to 13 metal species are identified as being associated with relatively strong Ly alpha absorbers over a specific redshift range. The measurements provide inputs for modeling the metal contamination in the Ly alpha forest and can further elucidate the physical conditions of these absorbers.
We investigate the metal species associated with the Ly alpha forest in eBOSS quasar spectra. Metal absorption lines are revealed in stacked spectra from cross-correlating the selected Ly alpha absorbers in the forest and the flux fluctuation field. Up to 13 metal species are identified as being associated with relatively strong Ly alpha absorbers (those with flux fluctuations - 1.0 < delta (Ly alpha ) < - 0.6 and with a neutral hydrogen column density of similar to 10(15-16) cm(-2)) over the absorber redshift range of 2 < z (abs) < 4. The column densities of these species decrease toward higher redshift and for weaker Ly alpha absorbers. From modeling the column densities of various species, we find that the column density pattern suggests contributions from multiple gas components, both in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) and the intergalactic medium (IGM). While the low-ionization species (e.g., C ii, Si ii, and Mg ii) can be explained by high-density, cool gas (T similar to 10(4) K) from the CGM, the high-ionization species may reside in low-density or high-temperature gas in the IGM. The measurements provide inputs for modeling the metal contamination in the Ly alpha forest baryon acoustic oscillation measurements. Comparisons with metal absorptions in high-resolution quasar spectra and hydrodynamic galaxy formation simulations can further elucidate the physical conditions of these Ly alpha absorbers.
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