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The Chemical Evolution of the Universe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2016

Antoinette Songaila  and
Lennox L. Cowie
Antoinette Songaila
Affiliation:
Institute for Astronomy, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
Lennox L. Cowie
Affiliation:
Institute for Astronomy, 2680 Woodlawn Drive, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA

Abstract

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We still know relatively little about the local metal density outside of galaxies and clusters, but at high redshifts (z ~ 3) the advent of highly efficient high-resolution spectrographs on the new 8–10m telescopes has revolutionized the study of quasar absorption lines. This allows us to track the bulk of the baryons in the Universe, which are in highly observable form at this redshift, and to determine the metal density of the gas that contains most of the baryonic material. One of the more surprising results that has emerged is how uniformly the intergalactic gas at redshifts 2–4 is pervaded by metals, and we discuss current limits on such metal contamination of the low density gas. These measurements will be useful in understanding and calibrating feedback processes in early generations of small galaxies. Future work will track the metal distribution at higher redshift using bright z = 5 SDSS quasars.

Type
Research Article
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 204: The Extragalactic Infrared Background and its Cosmological Implication , 2001 , pp. 323 - 331
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2001 

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