Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 356, Issue 6336, Pages 418-421Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf9346
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Funding
- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
- Max Planck Society
- NSF [AST-1010004]
- U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
- European Research Council [320596]
- DOE [DE-AC02-05CH11231]
- W. M. Keck Foundation
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1412981] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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The distribution of diffuse gas in the intergalactic medium (IGM) imprints a series of hydrogen absorption lines on the spectra of distant background quasars known as the Lyman-alpha forest. Cosmological hydrodynamical simulations predict that IGM density fluctuations are suppressed below a characteristic scale where thermal pressure balances gravity. We measured this pressure-smoothing scale by quantifying absorption correlations in a sample of close quasar pairs. We compared our measurements to hydrodynamical simulations, where pressure smoothing is determined by the integrated thermal history of the IGM. Our findings are consistent with standard models for photoionization heating by the ultraviolet radiation backgrounds that reionized the universe.
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