Sign on

SAO/NASA ADS Astronomy Abstract Service

· Find Similar Abstracts (with default settings below)
· Electronic Refereed Journal Article (HTML)
· Full Refereed Journal Article (PDF/Postscript)
· Full Refereed Scanned Article (GIF)
· arXiv e-print (arXiv:astro-ph/0503001)
· On-line Data
· References in the article
· Citations to the Article (32) (Citation History)
· Refereed Citations to the Article
· SIMBAD Objects (26)
· NED Objects (19)
· Associated Articles
· Also-Read Articles (Reads History)
·
· Translate This Page
Title:
The sources of intergalactic metals [ Erratum: 2006MNRAS.366.1118S ]
Authors:
Scannapieco, E.; Pichon, C.; Aracil, B.; Petitjean, P.; Thacker, R. J.; Pogosyan, D.; Bergeron, J.; Couchman, H. M. P.
Affiliation:
AA(Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kohn Hall, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA), AB(Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, 98 bis Boulevard d'Arago, F-75014 Paris, France; Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 Rue de l'Université, F-67000 Strasbourg, France), AC(Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA), AD(Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, 98 bis Boulevard d'Arago, F-75014 Paris, France; LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, 61 Avenue de l'Observatoire, F-75014 Paris, France), AE(Department of Physics, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, K7L 3N6, Canada), AF(Department of Physics, University of Alberta, 412 Avadh Bhatia Physics Laboratory, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2J1, Canada), AG(Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, 98 bis Boulevard d'Arago, F-75014 Paris, France), AH(Department of Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University, 1280 Main Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 4M1, Canada)
Publication:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 365, Issue 2, pp. 615-637. (MNRAS Homepage)
Publication Date:
01/2006
Origin:
MNRAS
MNRAS Keywords:
galaxies: formation, intergalactic medium, quasars: absorption lines, cosmology: observations
DOI:
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.09753.x
Bibliographic Code:
2006MNRAS.365..615S

Abstract

We study the clustering properties of metals in the intergalactic medium (IGM) as traced by 619 CIV and 81 SiIV absorption components with N>= 1012cm-2 and 316 MgII and 82 FeII absorption components with N>= 1011.5cm-2 in 19 high signal-to-noise ratio (60-100 pixel-1), high-resolution (R= 45000) quasar spectra. CIV and SiIV trace each other closely and their line-of-sight correlation functions ξ(v) exhibit a steep decline at large separations and a flatter profile below ~150 km s-1, with a large overall bias. These features do not depend on absorber column densities, although there are hints that the overall amplitude of ξCIV (v) increases with time over the redshift range detected (1.5-3). Carrying out a detailed smoothed particle hydrodynamic simulation (2 × 3203, 57 Mpc3 comoving), we show that the CIV correlation function cannot be reproduced by models in which the IGM metallicity is constant or a local function of overdensity (Z~Δ2/3). However, the properties of ξCIV(v) are generally consistent with a model in which metals are confined within bubbles with a typical radius Rs about sources of mass >=Ms. We derive best-fitting values of Rs~ 2 comoving Mpc and Ms~ 1012Msolar at z= 3. Our lower-redshift (0.5-2) measurements of the MgII and FeII correlation functions also uncover a steep decline at large separations and a flatter profile at small separations, but the clustering is even higher than in the z= 1.5-3 measurements, and the turnover is shifted to somewhat smaller distances, ~75 km s-1. Again, these features do not change with column density, but there are hints that the amplitudes of ξMgII(v) and ξFeII(v) increase with time. We describe an analytic `bubble' model for these species, which come from regions that are too compact to be accurately simulated numerically, deriving best-fitting values of Rs~ 2.4 Mpc and Ms~ 1012Msolar. Equally good analytic fits to all four species are found in a similarly biased high-redshift enrichment model in which metals are placed within 2.4 comoving Mpc of Ms~ 3 × 109 sources at z= 7.5.

Associated Articles

Main Paper     Erratum    

Printing Options

Print whole paper
Print Page(s) through

Return 600 dpi PDF to Acrobat/Browser. Different resolutions (200 or 600 dpi), formats (Postscript, PDF, etc), page sizes (US Letter, European A4, etc), and compression (gzip,compress,none) can be set through the Printing Preferences


More Article Retrieval Options

HELP for Article Retrieval
Bibtex entry for this abstract   Preferred format for this abstract (see Preferences)
   

Find Similar Abstracts:

Use: Authors
Title
Keywords (in text query field)
Abstract Text
Return: Query Results Return    items starting with number
Query Form
Database: Astronomy
Physics
arXiv e-prints