Searcharxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · astro-ph/0407549

Physical Properties and Baryonic Content of Low-Redshift Intergalactic Ly-alpha and O VI Absorption Systems: The PG1116+215 Sight Line

Kenneth R. Sembach·Todd M. Tripp·Blair D. Savage·Philipp Richter
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

We present HST and FUSE observations of the intergalactic absorption toward PG1116+215 in the 900-3000 A spectral region. We detect 25 Ly-alpha absorbers at rest-frame equivalent widths W_r > 30 mA, yielding (dN/dz)_Ly-alpha = 154+/-18 over an unblocked redshift path of 0.162. Two additional weak Ly-alpha absorbers with W_r ~ 15-20 mA are also present. Eight of the Ly-alpha absorbers have large line widths (b > 40 km/sec). The detection of narrow OVI in the broad Ly-alpha absorber at z=0.06244 supports the idea that the Ly-alpha profile is thermally broadened in gas with T > 10^5 K. We find dN/dz ~ 50 for broad Ly-alpha absorbers with W_r > 30 mA and b > 40 km/sec. If the broad Ly-alpha lines are dominated by thermal broadening in hot gas, the amount of baryonic material in these absorbers is enormous, perhaps as much as half the baryonic mass in the low-redshift universe. We detect OVI absorption in several of the Ly-alpha clouds along the sight line. Two detections at z=0.13847 and z=0.16548 are confirmed by the presence of other ions at these redshifts, while the detections at z=0.04125, 0.05895, 0.05928, and 0.06244 are based upon the Ly-alpha and OVI detections alone. The information available for 13 low-redshift OVI absorbers with W_r > 50 mA along 5 sight lines yields (dN/dz)_OVI ~ 14 and Omega_b(OVI) > 0.0027/h_75, assuming a metallicity of 0.1 solar and an OVI ionization fraction < 0.2. The properties and prevalence of low-redshift OVI absorbers suggest that they too may be a substantial baryon repository, perhaps containing as much mass as stars and gas inside galaxies. The redshifts of the OVI absorbers are highly correlated with the redshifts of galaxies along the sight line, though few of the absorbers lie closer than 600/h_75 kpc to any single galaxy. [abbreviated]

Explore related subjects

astro-ph

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Kenneth R. Sembach, Todd M. Tripp, Blair D. Savage, Philipp Richter. 2004-07-27. Physical Properties and Baryonic Content of Low-Redshift Intergalactic Ly-alpha and O VI Absorption Systems: The PG1116+215 Sight Line. https://doi.org/10.1086/425037

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2020

Cosmic Variance and Its Effect on the Luminosity Function Determination in Deep High z Surveys

We study cosmic variance in deep high redshift surveys and its influence on the determination of the luminosity function for high redshift galaxies. For several survey geometries relevant for HST and JWST instruments, we characterize the distribution of the galaxy number counts. This is obtained by means of analytic estimates via the two point correlation function in extended Press-Schechter theory as well as by using synthetic catalogs extracted from N-body cosmological simulations of structure formation. We adopt a simple luminosity - dark halo mass relation to investigate the environment effects on the fitting of the luminosity function. We show that in addition to variations of the normalization of the luminosity function, a steepening of its slope is also expected in underdense fields, similarly to what is observed within voids in the local universe. Therefore, to avoid introducing artificial biases, caution must be taken when attempting to correct for field underdensity, such as in the case of HST UDF i-dropout sample, which exhibits a deficit of bright counts with respect to the average counts in GOODS. A public version of the cosmic variance calculator based on the two point correlation function integration is made available on the web.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2020

Receiver control for the Submillimeter Array

Efficient operation of a submillimeter interferometer requires remote (preferably automated) control of mechanically tuned local oscillators, phase-lock loops, mixers, optics, calibration vanes and cryostats. The present control system for these aspects of the Submillimeter Array (SMA) will be described. Distributed processing forms the underlying architecture and the software is split between hardware platforms in a leader/follower arrangement. In each antenna cabin, a serial network of up to ten independent 80C196 microcontroller boards attaches to the real-time PowerPC computer (running LynxOS). A multi-threaded, gcc-compiled leader program on the PowerPC accepts top-level requests via remote procedure calls (RPC), subsequently dispatches tuning commands to the relevant follower microcontrollers, and regularly reports the system status to optical-fiber-based reflective memory for common access by the telescope monitor and error reporting system. All serial communication occurs asynchronously via encoded, variable-length packets. The microcontrollers respond to the requested commands and queries by accessing non-volatile, rewriteable lookup-tables (when appropriate) and executing embedded software that operates additional electronic devices (DACs, ADCs, etc.). Since various receiver hardware components require linear or rotary motion, each microcontroller also implements a position servo via a one-millisecond interrupt service routine which drives a DC-motor/encoder combination that remains standard across each subsystem.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2019

Classical analysis of the rotational dynamic of spiral galaxies: Quo Vadis Dark Matter?

In this paper we study a stellar dynamic model for the stars' rotational-dynamics, with a distribution of its own mass, rotating around its center with a higher density, like spiral galaxies happen, by means of a classical calculus of the rotation velocities of a particle around its rotational axis, inside a smoothed distribution of matter. The stars are supposed to be particles and their distribution in the galaxy is modelled as a matter distribution inversely proportional to its distance from its center. Two kinds of matter distribution are supposed: one with constant density, and other with radial distribution. Two types of galaxy symmetry are also considered: spherical and oblate ellipsoidal. Using only classical mechanics arguments it is shown that the calculated velocity distribution inside the galaxy is similar to that obtained from astronomical observations, without the necessity of suppose the existence of dark matter or other phenomena.

astro-ph↗