Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T07:05:42.128Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Redshift Distribution of Ly α Forest Lines in Spectra of QSOs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2016

Huang Keliang  and
Zhou Hongnan
Huang Keliang
Affiliation:
1 Department of Physics, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210024, China
Zhou Hongnan
Affiliation:
2 Department of Astronomy, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210008, China

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Numerous narrow absorption lines in the region of wavelength shorter than 1216(1+zem ) (zem is the emission redshift), i.e. so-called Ly α forest lines, detected in QSO spectra are usually thought to be produced in intervening primeval clouds. The study of Ly α clouds may reveal how matter distributes in space and how it evolves with time at the early universe and provide valuable information about the large scale structure of the universe and its evolution. Based on intermediate resolution (1 ∼ 2 A) spectra, many authors (e.g. Lu et al. 1991) deduced that the evolutionary index γ ∼ 2, (dN/dz ∼ (1 + z)γ, dN/dz is the number of clouds per unit redshift interval at redshift z). It means that Ly α clouds have strong cosmological evolution. In recent years, there appear high-resolution (< 30km/sec) spectra of QSOs. High resolution spectra may provide more information than medium resolution spectra. Hence, it is necessary to study the evolution of Ly α clouds, using the spectra with higher resolution. Carswell et al. (1987) found γ=1 in the redshift interval 1.9–3.8. But Rauch et al. (1992) found γ=2.1 for the line sample with logN(HI) ≥ 13.75. It is more interesting that Giallongo (1991) found a differential evolution: γ is depended on the equivalent width W of line and no evolution for the strong line sample with 0.5 > W > 0.3. However, these studies involved very few QSOs (three or four). In this paper, we use a larger sample of QSOs to study the evolution of Ly α clouds.

Type
Poster contributions: Statistical Studies and Evolution
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 159: Multi-Wavelength Continuum Emission of AGN , 1994 , pp. 509 - 510
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1994 

References

Atwood, B., Baldwin, J.A. and Carswell, R.F., 1985 Ap. J. 292, 58 Google Scholar
Bahcall, J.N., Jannuzi, B.T., Schneider, D.P., Harting, G.F., Bohlin, R. and Junkharinen, V., 1991 Ap. J. 377, L5 Google Scholar
Carswell, R.F., Webb, J.K., Baldwin, J.A. and Atwood, B., 1987 Ap, J. 319, 709 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carswell, R.F., Lanzetta, K.M., Parnell, H.C. and Webb, J.K., 1991 Ap. J. 371, 36 Google Scholar
Giallongo, E. 1991 M.N.R.A.S. 251, 541 Google Scholar
Huang, K. et al. (in preparation) Google Scholar
Kulkarni, V.P., Welty, D.E., York, D.G., Huang, K. L., Green, R. F. and Bechtold, J., 1993 Ap. J. (in press) Lu, L., WoIfe, A.M. and Turnshek, D.A. 1991 Ap. J. 367, 19 Google Scholar
Morris, S.L., Weymann, R.J., Savage, B.D. and Gilliland, R.L., 1991 Ap. J. 377, L21 Google Scholar
Murdoch, H.S., Hunstead, R.W., Pettini, M. and Blades, J.C., 1986 Ap. J. 309, 19 Google Scholar
Pettini, M., Hunstead, R.W., Smith, L.J. and Mar, D.P., 1990 M.N.R.A.S. 246, 545 Google Scholar
Rauch, M., Carswell, R.F., Chaffee, F.H., Foltz, C.B., Webb, J.K., Weymann, R.J., Bechtold, J., and Green, R.F., 1992 Ap. J. 390, 387 Google Scholar
York, D.G., Green, R.F., Huang, K.L., Bechtold, J., Welty, D.E. and Carlson, M., 1993 Ap. J. (in press) Google Scholar