scholarly journals The effect of high column density systems on the measurement of the Lyman-α forest correlation function

2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 (07) ◽  
pp. 028-028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreu Font-Ribera ◽  
Jordi Miralda-Escudé
2020 ◽  
Vol 500 (1) ◽  
pp. 291-300
Author(s):  
V Braito ◽  
J N Reeves ◽  
P Severgnini ◽  
R Della Ceca ◽  
L Ballo ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Past Suzaku, XMM–Newton, and NuSTAR observations of the nearby (z = 0.03233) bright Seyfert 2 galaxy MCG-03-58-007 revealed the presence of two deep and blue-shifted iron K-shell absorption line profiles. These could be explained with the presence of two phases of a highly ionized, high column density accretion disc wind outflowing with vout1 ∼ −0.1c and vout2 ∼ −0.2c. Here we present two new observations of MCG-03-58-007: one was carried out in 2016 with Chandra and one in 2018 with Swift. Both caught MCG-03-58-007 in a brighter state ($F_{{\mathrm{2}-10\, keV}} \sim 4 \times 10^{-12}$ erg cm−2 s−1) confirming the presence of the fast disc wind. The multi-epoch observations of MCG-03-58-007 covering the period from 2010 to 2018 were then analysed. These data show that the lower velocity component outflowing with vout1 ∼ −0.072 ± 0.002c is persistent and detected in all the observations, although it is variable in column density in the range NH ∼ 3–8 × 1023 cm−2. In the 2016 Swift observation we detected again the second faster component outflowing with vout2 ∼ −0.2c, with a column density ($N_{\mbox{H}}=7.0^{+5.6}_{-4.1}\times 10^{23}$ cm−2), similar to that seen during the Suzaku observation. However during the Chandra observation 2 yr earlier, this zone was not present (NH < 1.5 × 1023 cm−2), suggesting that this faster zone is intermittent. Overall the multi-epochs observations show that the disc wind in MCG-03-58-007 is not only powerful, but also extremely variable, hence placing MCG-03-58-007 among unique disc winds such as the one seen in the famous QSO PDS456. One of the main results of this investigation is the consideration that these winds could be extremely variable, sometime appearing and sometime disappearing; thus to reach solid and firm conclusions about their energetics multiple observations are mandatory.


1996 ◽  
Vol 173 ◽  
pp. 97-98
Author(s):  
Matthias Bartelmann ◽  
Abraham Loeb

A wealth of observational data supports the commonly held view that damped Lyman-α (Lyα) absorption in QSO spectra is associated with neutral-hydrogen (HI) disks in spiral galaxies. Most of the HI probed by QSO absorption lines is traced by damped Lyα lines because of their high column densities, N > 1020 cm–2. The spiral galaxies hosting the HI disks can act as gravitational lenses on the QSOs. If the HI column density increases towards the center of the disks, as suggested by observations of local galaxies, the magnification bias preferentially selects for high column-density systems. The estimates of HI in damped Lyα systems can then systematically be distorted by gravitational lensing.


2020 ◽  
Vol 633 ◽  
pp. A125 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Ranjan ◽  
P. Noterdaeme ◽  
J.-K. Krogager ◽  
P. Petitjean ◽  
R. Srianand ◽  
...  

We present the results from VLT/X-shooter spectroscopic observations of 11 extremely strong intervening damped Lyman-α absorbers (ESDLAs) that were initially selected as high N(H I) (i.e. ≥5 × 1021 cm−2) candidates from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We confirm the high H I column densities, which we measure to be in the range log N(H I) = 21.6 − 22.4. Molecular hydrogen is detected with high column densities (N(H2)≥1018 cm−2) in 5 out of 11 systems, 3 of which are reported here for the first time, and we obtain conservative upper limits on N(H2) for the remaining 6 systems. We also measure the column density of various metal species (Zn II, Fe II, Si II, Cr II, and C I), quantify the absorption-line kinematics (Δv90), and estimate the extinction of the background quasar light (AV) by dust in the absorbing gas. We compare the chemical properties of this sample of ESDLAs, supplemented with literature measurements, to that of DLAs located at the redshift of long-duration γ-ray bursts (GRB-DLAs). We confirm that the two populations are almost indistinguishable in terms of chemical enrichment and gas kinematics. In addition, we find no marked differences in the incidence of H2. All this suggests that ESDLAs and GRB-DLAs probe similar galactic environments. We search for the galaxy counterparts of ESDLAs and find associated emission lines in 3 out of 11 systems, 2 of which are reported here for the first time (at zabs = 2.304 and 2.323 towards the quasars SDSS J002503.03+114547.80 and SDSS J114347.21+142021.60, respectively). The measured separations between the quasar sightlines and the emission associated with the ESDLA galaxy (for a total of five sightlines) are all very small (ρ <  3 kpc). Because our observations are complete up to ρ ∼ 7 kpc, we argue that the emission counterparts of the remaining systems are more likely below the detection limit than outside the search area. While the small impact parameters are similar to what is observed for GRB-DLAs, the associated star formation rates are on average lower than for GRB host galaxies. This is explained by long-duration GRBs being associated with the death of massive stars and therefore pinpointing regions of active star formation in the GRB host galaxies. Our observations support the suggestion from the literature that ESDLAs could act as blind analogues of GRB-DLAs, probing neutral gas with high column density in the heart of high-redshift galaxies, without any prior on the instantaneous star formation rate.


2012 ◽  
Vol 761 (1) ◽  
pp. 54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Erkal ◽  
Nickolay Y. Gnedin ◽  
Andrey V. Kravtsov

1996 ◽  
Vol 282 (4) ◽  
pp. 1330-1342 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J. Storrie-Lombardi ◽  
M. J. Irwin ◽  
R. G. McMahon
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Noé Brucy ◽  
Patrick Hennebelle

Abstract Self-gravitating disks are believed to play an important role in astrophysics in particular regarding the star and planet formation process. In this context, disks subject to an idealized cooling process, characterized by a cooling timescale β expressed in unit of orbital timescale, have been extensively studied. We take advantage of the Riemann solver and the 3D Godunov scheme implemented in the code Ramses to perform high resolution simulations, complementing previous studies that have used Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) or 2D grid codes. We observe that the critical value of β for which the disk fragments is consistent with most previous results, and is not well converged with resolution. By studying the probability density function of the fluctuations of the column density (∑-PDF), we argue that there is no strict separation between the fragmented and the unfragmented regimes but rather a smooth transition with the probability of apparition of fragments steadily diminishing as the cooling becames less effective. We find that the high column density part of the ∑-PDF follows a simple power law whose slope turns out to be proportional to β and we propose an explanation based on the balance between cooling and heating through gravitational stress. Our explanation suggests that a more efficient cooling requires more heating implying a larger fraction of dense material which, in the absence of characteristic scales, results in a shallower scale-free power law. We propose that the gravitational cascade proceeds in two steps, first the formation of a dense filamentary spiral pattern through a sequence of quasi-static equilibrium triggered by the viscous transport of angular momentum, and second the collapse alongside these filaments that eventually results in the formation of bounded fragments.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document