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Recovering Density Fields inside Quasar Proximity Zones at z ~ 6

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal
 [1];  [2]
  1. Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States)
  2. Univ. of Chicago, IL (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations
The matter density field at z ~ 6 is very challenging to probe. One of the traditional probes of the low density intergalactic medium that works successfully at lower redshifts is the Lyα forest in quasar spectra. However, at the end of reionization, the residual neutral hydrogen usually creates saturated absorption, thus much of the information about the gas density is lost. Luckily, in a quasar proximity zone, the ionizing radiation is exceptionally intense, thus creating a large region with nonzero transmitted flux. In this study we use the synthetic spectra from simulations to investigate how to recover the density fluctuations inside the quasar proximity zones. We show that, under ideal conditions, the density can be recovered accurately with a small scatter. We also discuss how systematics such as the quasar continuum fitting and reionization models affect the results. This study shows that by analyzing the absorption features inside quasar proximity zones we can potentially constrain quasar properties and the environments they reside in.
Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
1780807
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 23158537
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB--21-041-T; arXiv:2101.11627; oai:inspirehep.net:1844044
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 916; ISSN 0004-637X
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
Cosmology
Intergalactic medium
Large-scale structure of the universe
Quasars
Reionization