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Quasar Absorption Lines: Evolution and Clustering

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 August 2017

Wallace L.W. Sargent
Wallace L.W. Sargent*
Affiliation:
Palomar Observatory, 105-24, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Ca. 91125, U.S.A.

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A large new sample of absorption redshifts derived from the C IV doublet in the spectra of 56 QSOs has been used to study the evolution and clustering tendencies of the heavy element absorbers (thought to be galaxies). The new data have been compared with more extensive existing data for the more common Lyman α forest lines (thought to be produced by intergalactic clouds). Little or no clustering is observed in the Lyman α forest lines; moreover, there is no evidence for voids in their distribution. Clustering has been detected in the heavy element redshifts on scales Δv ≥ 200 km s−1 where relative motions of clouds within galaxies are unlikely to dominate. The degree of clustering inferred at z ≈ 2 is of the order expected on the simplest model for the evolution of galaxy clustering in cosmic time. The recent discovery of similar concentrations of absorption features extending over Δz ∼ 0.2 in the spectra of widely separated QSOs on the sky provides evidence for very large structures, probably filaments or sheets of galaxies, extending over 100 Mpc (co-moving). The Lyman α forest and heavy element redshifts evolve very differently. The Lyman lines show a rapid increase in density with increasing z, while the C IV doublets show a decrease. This result emphasizes that there are two discrete populations of absorbers. The decrease in C IV line density may be due to the effects of the onset of stellar nucleosynthesis in galaxies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 130: Large Scale Structures of the Universe , 1988 , pp. 333 - 342
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1988 

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