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QSO absorption lines, winds, and the high-redshift intergalactic medium

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2016

Robert F. Carswell*
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK

Abstract

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The close similarities in the spectra of the Lyα absorption forests in separate images of gravitationally lensed QSOs at high redshifts provide upper limits for the filling factor of the universe for gas that has undergone recent hydrodynamic disturbances. Strong winds blowing for a substantial fraction of the local Hubble time do not significantly affect the low density regions which fill a large fraction of the volume of the universe. Many of the higher density absorbers appear to be photo-ionized and show some heavy element enrichment. They also contain a cosmologically significant fraction of the baryons and the heavy elements in the universe at that stage of its evolution.

Type
Part 4. Feedback from Massive Stars
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2003 

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