The Distribution and Evolution of Quasar Proximity Zone Sizes

Chen, Huanqing; Gnedin, Nickolay Y.

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/abe7e7

The Distribution and Evolution of Quasar Proximity Zone Sizes

Journal Article · Thu Apr 15 04:00:00 EDT 2021 · The Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/abe7e7· OSTI ID:1661683

^[1]; Gnedin, Nickolay Y. ^[2]

Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)

In this paper, we study the sizes of quasar proximity zones with synthetic quasar absorption spectra obtained by postprocessing a Cosmic Reionization On Computers (CROC) simulation. CROC simulations have both relatively large box sizes and high spatial resolution, allowing us to resolve Lyman limit systems (LLSs), which are crucial for modeling the quasar absorption spectra. We find that before reionization, most quasar proximity zone sizes grow steadily for ~10 Myr, while after reionization, they grow rapidly but only for ~0.1 Myr. We also find a slow growth of R obs with decreasing turn-on redshift. In addition, we find that ~1%–2% of old quasars (30 Myr old) display extremely small proximity zone sizes (<1 proper Mpc), the vast majority of which are due to the occurrence of a damped Lyα absorber (DLA) or an LLS along the line of sight. These DLAs and LLSs are contaminated with metal, which offers a way to distinguish them from the normal proximity zones of young quasars.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-07CH11359

OSTI ID:: 1661683

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 23155361

Report Number(s):: FERMILAB-PUB-20-430-T; arXiv:2008.04911; oai:inspirehep.net:1811448

Journal Information:: The Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 911; ISSN 0004-637X

Publisher:: IOP PublishingCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (51)

Multi-dimensional cosmological radiative transfer with a Variable Eddington Tensor formalism Gnedin, Nickolay Y.; Abel, Tom New Astronomy, Vol. 6, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1384-1076(01)00068-9	journal	October 2001
Modeling primordial gas in numerical cosmology Abel, Tom; Anninos, Peter; Zhang, Yu New Astronomy, Vol. 2, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1384-1076(97)00010-9	journal	August 1997
P3M-SPH simulations of the Lyα forest Theuns, Tom; Leonard, Anthony; Efstathiou, George Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 301, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-8711.1998.02040.x	journal	December 1998
Supermassive black holes in the early universe Smith, Aaron; Bromm, Volker Contemporary Physics, Vol. 60, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1080/00107514.2019.1615715	journal	April 2019
X-ray secondary heating and ionization in quasar emission-line clouds Shull, J. M.; van Steenberg, M. E. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 298 https://doi.org/10.1086/163605	journal	November 1985
A hydrodynamic approach to cosmology - Methodology Cen, Renyue The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Vol. 78 https://doi.org/10.1086/191630	journal	January 1992
The Earliest Luminous Sources and the Damping Wing of the Gunn-Peterson Trough Madau, Piero; Rees, Martin J. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 542, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1086/312934	journal	October 2000
Quasar Strömgren Spheres Before Cosmological Reionization Cen, Renyue; Haiman, Zoltan The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 542, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1086/312937	journal	October 2000
Evidence for Reionization at [ITAL][CLC]z[/CLC][/ITAL] ∼ 6: Detection of a Gunn-Peterson Trough in a [ITAL][CLC]z[/CLC][/ITAL] = 6.28 Quasar Becker, Robert H.; Fan, Xiaohui; White, Richard L. The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 122, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1086/324231	journal	December 2001
Constrained Simulations of the Real Universe. II. Observational Signatures of Intergalactic Gas in the Local Supercluster Region Kravtsov, Andrey V.; Klypin, Anatoly; Hoffman, Yehuda The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 571, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1086/340046	journal	June 2002
Constraining the Evolution of the Ionizing Background and the Epoch of Reionization with z ~ 6 Quasars. II. A Sample of 19 Quasars Fan, Xiaohui; Strauss, Michael A.; Becker, Robert H. The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 132, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1086/504836	journal	June 2006
Relativistic Ionization Fronts Shapiro, Paul R.; Iliev, Ilian T.; Alvarez, Marcelo A. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 648, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1086/506242	journal	September 2006
Probing the Evolution of Infrared Properties of z ~ 6 Quasars: Spitzer Observations Jiang, Linhua; Fan, Xiaohui; Hines, Dean C. The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 132, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1086/508209	journal	October 2006
Quasar Proximity Zones and Patchy Reionization Lidz, Adam; McQuinn, Matthew; Zaldarriaga, Matias The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 670, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1086/521974	journal	November 2007
Effects of Baryons and Dissipation on the Matter Power Spectrum Rudd, Douglas H.; Zentner, Andrew R.; Kravtsov, Andrey V. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 672, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1086/523836	journal	January 2008
IONIZATION NEAR ZONES ASSOCIATED WITH QUASARS AT z ∼ 6 Carilli, C. L.; Wang, Ran; Fan, X. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 714, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/714/1/834	journal	April 2010
The Rockstar Phase-Space Temporal halo Finder and the Velocity Offsets of Cluster Cores Behroozi, Peter S.; Wechsler, Risa H.; Wu, Hao-Yi The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 762, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/762/2/109	journal	December 2012
Cosmic Reionization on Computers. i. Design and Calibration of Simulations Gnedin, Nickolay Y. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 793, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/793/1/29	journal	September 2014
yt: A MULTI-CODE ANALYSIS TOOLKIT FOR ASTROPHYSICAL SIMULATION DATA Turk, Matthew J.; Smith, Britton D.; Oishi, Jeffrey S. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Vol. 192, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/192/1/9	journal	December 2010
THE IDENTIFICATION OF z -DROPOUTS IN PAN-STARRS1: THREE QUASARS AT 6.5< z < 6.7 Venemans, B. P.; Bañados, E.; Decarli, R. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 801, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/801/1/L11	journal	February 2015
Connecting cosmological accretion to strong Ly α absorbers Theuns, Tom Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 500, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa3412	journal	November 2020
Model-independent evidence in favour of an end to reionization by z ≈ 6 McGreer, Ian D.; Mesinger, Andrei; D'Odorico, Valentina Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 447, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu2449	journal	December 2014
Evidence of patchy hydrogen reionization from an extreme Lyα trough below redshift six Becker, George D.; Bolton, James S.; Madau, Piero Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 447, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu2646	journal	January 2015
Probing the end of reionization with the near zones of z ≳ 6 QSOs Keating, Laura C.; Haehnelt, Martin G.; Cantalupo, Sebastiano Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 454, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv2020	journal	September 2015
The physical properties of z > 2 Lyman limit systems: new constraints for feedback and accretion models Fumagalli, Michele; O'Meara, John M.; Prochaska, J. Xavier Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 455, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv2616	journal	December 2015
The first ultraviolet quasar-stacked spectrum at z ≃ 2.4 from WFC3 Lusso, E.; Worseck, G.; Hennawi, J. F. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 449, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv516	journal	April 2015
Quasar ionization front Lyα emission in an inhomogeneous intergalactic medium Davies, Frederick B.; Furlanetto, Steven R.; McQuinn, Matthew Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 457, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw055	journal	February 2016
The role of galaxies and AGN in reionizing the IGM – I. Keck spectroscopy of 5 < z < 7 galaxies in the QSO field J1148+5251 Kakiichi, Koki; Ellis, Richard S.; Laporte, Nicolas Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 479, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty1318	journal	May 2018
New constraints on Lyman-α opacity with a sample of 62 quasars at z > 5.7 Bosman, Sarah E. I.; Fan, Xiaohui; Jiang, Linhua Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty1344	journal	May 2018
Characterizing circumgalactic gas around massive ellipticals at z ∼ 0.4 – II. Physical properties and elemental abundances Zahedy, Fakhri S.; Chen, Hsiao-Wen; Johnson, Sean D. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 484, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty3482	journal	December 2018
Evidence for short ∼ 1 Myr lifetimes from the He ii proximity zones of z ∼ 4 quasars Khrykin, Ilya S.; Hennawi, Joseph F.; Worseck, Gábor Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 484, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz135	journal	January 2019
Time-dependent behaviour of quasar proximity zones at z ∼ 6 Davies, Frederick B.; Hennawi, Joseph F.; Eilers, Anna-Christina Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 493, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz3303	journal	November 2019
Voigt profile fitting to quasar absorption lines: an analytic approximation to the Voigt-Hjerting function: A new method to compute Voigt profiles Tepper García, Thorsten Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 369, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10450.x	journal	June 2006
Cosmological radiative transfer codes comparison project �� I. The static density field tests Iliev, Ilian T.; Ciardi, Benedetta; Alvarez, Marcelo A. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 371, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10775.x	journal	September 2006
The nature and evolution of the highly ionized near-zones in the absorption spectra of z = 6 quasars Bolton, J. S.; Haehnelt, M. G. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 374, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11176.x	journal	January 2007
Secondary ionization and heating by fast electrons Furlanetto, Steven R.; Johnson Stoever, Samuel Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.16401.x	journal	March 2010
Damped lyα Systems Wolfe, Arthur M.; Gawiser, Eric; Prochaska, Jason X. Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Vol. 43, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.astro.42.053102.133950	journal	September 2005
Implications of z ∼ 6 Quasar Proximity Zones for the Epoch of Reionization and Quasar Lifetimes Eilers, Anna-Christina; Davies, Frederick B.; Hennawi, Joseph F. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 840, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa6c60	journal	May 2017
Physical Properties of 15 Quasars at z ≳ 6.5 Mazzucchelli, C.; Bañados, E.; Venemans, B. P. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 849, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aa9185	journal	November 2017
The Opacity of the Intergalactic Medium Measured along Quasar Sightlines at z ∼ 6 Eilers, Anna-Christina; Davies, Frederick B.; Hennawi, Joseph F. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 864, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aad4fd	journal	August 2018
First Spectroscopic Study of a Young Quasar Eilers, Anna-Christina; Hennawi, Joseph F.; Davies, Frederick B. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 867, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aae081	journal	October 2018
A Metal-poor Damped Ly α System at Redshift 6.4 Bañados, Eduardo; Rauch, Michael; Decarli, Roberto The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 885, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab4129	journal	October 2019
Subaru Medium-resolution Spectra of a QSO at z = 6.62: Three Reionization Tests Lu, Ting-Yi; Goto, Tomotsugu; Tang, Ji-Jia The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 893, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab7db7	journal	April 2020
The Role of Quasar Radiative Feedback on Galaxy Formation during Cosmic Reionization Chen, Huanqing The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 893, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab80c6	journal	April 2020
Cosmic Reionization On Computers: The Galaxy–Halo Connection between 5 ≤ z ≤ 10 Zhu, Hanjue; Avestruz, Camille; Gnedin, Nickolay Y. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 899, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aba26d	journal	August 2020
Detecting and Characterizing Young Quasars. I. Systemic Redshifts and Proximity Zone Measurements Eilers, Anna-Christina; Hennawi, Joseph F.; Decarli, Roberto The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 900, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aba52e	journal	August 2020
Ionized and Atomic Interstellar Medium in the z = 6.003 Quasar SDSS J2310+1855 Li, Jianan; Wang, Ran; Cox, Pierre The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 900, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ababac	journal	September 2020
The Mean Absorption-line Spectra of a Selection of Luminous z ∼ 6 Lyman Break Galaxies Harikane, Yuichi; Laporte, Nicolas; Ellis, Richard S. The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 902, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/abb597	journal	October 2020
Subaru High- z Exploration of Low-luminosity Quasars (SHELLQs). XI. Proximity Zone Analysis for Faint Quasar Spectra at z ∼ 6 Ishimoto, Rikako; Kashikawa, Nobunari; Onoue, Masafusa The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 903, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/abb80b	journal	November 2020
Measurements of the z ∼ 6 Intergalactic Medium Optical Depth and Transmission Spikes Using a New z > 6.3 Quasar Sample Yang, Jinyi; Wang, Feige; Fan, Xiaohui The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 904, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/abbc1b	journal	November 2020
Evidence for Low Radiative Efficiency or Highly Obscured Growth of z > 7 Quasars Davies, Frederick B.; Hennawi, Joseph F.; Eilers, Anna-Christina The Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 884, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ab42e3	journal	October 2019

Similar Records

Cosmic Reionization on Computers: Statistics, Physical Properties, and Environments of Lyman Limit Systems at z ~ 6

Journal Article · Tue Feb 27 23:00:00 EST 2024 · The Astrophysical Journal · OSTI ID:1909856

Observed Faraday Effects in Damped Lyα Absorbers and Lyman Limit Systems: The Magnetized Environment of Galactic Building Blocks at Redshift = 2

Journal Article · Thu Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Astrophysical Journal · OSTI ID:22872680

Recovering Density Fields inside Quasar Proximity Zones at z ~ 6

Journal Article · Thu Aug 05 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · The Astrophysical Journal · OSTI ID:1780807

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
Lyman limit systems
astronomical simulations
damped Lyman-alpha systems
extragalactic astronomy
galaxy environments
intergalactic clouds
large-scale structure of the Universe
quasar absorption line spectroscopy
quasars
radiative transfer simulations
reionization

The Distribution and Evolution of Quasar Proximity Zone Sizes

Citation Formats

References (51)

Similar Records

Related Subjects