arXiv subjects

Stuart Wyithe

Publications and source records attributed to Stuart Wyithe.

79 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2003

Was the Universe Reionized by Massive Population-III Stars?

The WMAP satellite has measured a large optical depth to electron scattering after cosmological recombination of 0.17+-0.04, implying significant reionization of the primordial gas only ~200 million years after the big bang. However, the most recent overlap of intergalactic HII regions must have occured at z<9 based on the Lyman-alpha forest constraint on the thermal history of the intergalactic medium. Here we argue that a first generation of metal-free stars with a heavy (rather than Salpeter) mass function is therefore required to account for much of the inferred optical depth. This conclusion holds if feedback regulates star formation in early dwarf galaxies as observed in present-day dwarfs.

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arXiv2003

Self-Regulated Growth of Supermassive Black Holes in Galaxies as the Origin of the Optical and X-ray Luminosity Functions of Quasars

We postulate that supermassive black-holes grow in the centers of galaxies until they unbind the galactic gas that feeds them. We show that the corresponding self-regulation condition yields a correlation between black-hole mass (Mbh) and galaxy velocity dispersion (sigma) as inferred in the local universe, and recovers the observed optical and X-ray luminosity functions of quasars at redshifts up to z~6 based on the hierarchical evolution of galaxy halos in a Lambda-CDM cosmology. With only one free parameter and a simple algorithm, our model yields the observed evolution in the number density of optically bright or X-ray faint quasars between 2<z<6 across 3 orders of magnitude in bolometric luminosity and 3 orders of magnitude in comoving density per logarithm of luminosity. The self-regulation condition identifies the dynamical time of galactic disks during the epoch of peak quasar activity (z~2.5) as the origin of the inferred characteristic quasar lifetime of ~10 million years. Since the lifetime becomes comparable to the Salpeter e-folding time at this epoch, the model also implies that the Mbh-sigma relation is a product of feedback regulated accretion during the peak of quasar activity. The mass-density in black-holes accreted by that time is consistent with the local black-hole mass density of ~(0.8-6.3) times 10^5 solar masses per cubic Mpc, which we have computed by combining the Mbh-sigma relation with the measured velocity dispersion function of SDSS galaxies (Sheth et al.~2003). Applying a similar self-regulation principle to supernova-driven winds from starbursts, we find that the ratio between the black hole mass and the stellar mass of galactic spheroids increases with redshift as (1+z)^1.5 although the Mbh-sigma relation is redshift-independent.

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arXiv2002

Reionization of Hydrogen and Helium by Early Stars and Quasars

We compute the reionization histories of hydrogen and helium due to the ionizing radiation fields produced by stars and quasars. For the quasars we use a model based on halo-merger rates that reproduces all known properties of the quasar luminosity function at high redshifts. The less constrained properties of the ionizing radiation produced by stars are modeled with two free parameters: (i) a transition redshift, z_tran, above which the stellar population is dominated by massive, zero-metallicity stars and below which it is dominated by a Scalo mass function; (ii) the product of the escape fraction of stellar ionizing photons from their host galaxies and the star-formation efficiency, f_esc f_*. We constrain the allowed range of these free parameters at high redshifts based on the lack of the HI Gunn-Peterson trough at z<6 and the upper limit on the total intergalactic optical depth for electron scattering, tau_es<0.18, from recent cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. We find that quasars ionize helium by a redshift z~4, but cannot reionize hydrogen by themselves before z~6. A major fraction of the allowed combinations of f_esc f_* and z_tran lead to an early peak in the ionized fraction due to metal-free stars at high redshifts. This sometimes results in two reionization epochs, namely an early HII or HeIII overlap phase followed by recombination and a second overlap phase. Even if early overlap is not achieved, the peak in the visibility function for scattering of the CMB often coincides with the early ionization phase rather than with the actual reionization epoch. Consequently, tau_es does not correspond directly to the reionization redshift. We generically find values of tau_es>7%, that should be detectable by the MAP satellite.

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arXiv2002

A Physical Model for the Luminosity Function of High-Redshift Quasars

We provide a simple theoretical model for the quasar luminosity function at high redshifts that naturally reproduces the statistical properties of the luminous SDSS quasar sample at redshifts z~4.3 and z>5.7. Our model is based on the assumptions that quasar emission is triggered by galaxy mergers, and that the black hole mass is proportional to a power-law in the circular velocity v of the host galactic halo. We assume that quasars shine at their Eddington luminosity over a time proportional to the mass ratio between the small and final galaxies in the merger. This simple model fits the quasar luminosity function at z~2-3, reproduces the normalization and logarithmic slope (beta -2.58) at z~4.3, explains the space density of bright SDSS quasars at z~6.0, reproduces the black hole - halo mass relation for dormant black holes in the local universe, and matches the estimated duty cycle of quasar activity (~10^7 years) in Lyman-break galaxies at z~3. Based on the derived luminosity function we predict the resulting gravitational lensing rates for high redshift quasars. The lens fractions in the SDSS samples are predicted to be ~2% at z~4.3 and ~10% at z>5.7. Interestingly, the limiting quasar luminosity in our best-fit relation of L proportional to v^5/G, scales as the binding energy of the host galaxy divided by its dynamical time, implying that feedback is the mechanism that regulates black hole growth in galactic potential wells.

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arXiv2002

Gravitational Lensing of the SDSS High-Redshift Quasars

We predict the effects of gravitational lensing on the color-selected flux-limited samples of z~4.3 and z>5.8 quasars, recently published by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Our main findings are: (i) The lensing probability should be 1-2 orders of magnitude higher than for conventional surveys. The expected fraction of multiply-imaged quasars is highly sensitive to redshift and the uncertain slope of the bright end of the luminosity function, beta_h. For beta_h=2.58 (3.43) we find that at z~4.3 and i*<20.0 the fraction is ~4% (13%) while at z~6 and z*<20.2 the fraction is ~7% (30%). (ii) The distribution of magnifications is heavily skewed; sources having the redshift and luminosity of the SDSS z>5.8 quasars acquire median magnifications of med(mu_obs)~1.1-1.3 and mean magnifications of ~5-50. Estimates of the quasar luminosity density at high redshift must therefore filter out gravitationally-lensed sources. (iii) The flux in the Gunn-Peterson trough of the highest redshift (z=6.28) quasar is known to be f_lambda<3 10^-19 erg/sec/cm^2/Angstrom. Should this quasar be multiply imaged, we estimate a 40% chance that light from the lens galaxy would have contaminated the same part of the quasar spectrum with a higher flux. Hence, spectroscopic studies of the epoch of reionization need to account for the possibility that a lens galaxy, which boosts the quasar flux, also contaminates the Gunn-Peterson trough. (iv) Microlensing by stars should result in ~1/3 of multiply imaged quasars in the z>5.8 catalog varying by more than 0.5 magnitudes over the next decade. The median equivalent width would be lowered by ~20% with respect to the intrinsic value due to differential magnification of the continuum and emission-line regions.

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arXiv2002

Gravitational lenses magnify up to one third of the most distant quasars

Exceptionally bright quasars with redshifts up to z=6.28 have recently been discovered. Quasars are thought to be powered by the accretion of gas onto supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies. Their maximum (Eddington) luminosity is proportional to the mass of the black hole, and so these bright quasars are inferred to have black holes with masses of more than a few billion solar masses. The existence of such massive black holes poses a challenge to models for the formation of structures in the early Universe, as it requires that the black holes would grow so massive in less than a billion years after the Big Bang. Here we show that up to a third of known quasars with z~6 will have their observed flux magnified by a factor of 10 or more through gravitational lensing by galaxies along the line of sight. The inferred abundance of quasar host galaxies, as well as the luminosity density provided by the quasars, are therefore substantially overestimated.

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arXiv2002

Measuring the Size of Quasar Broad-Line Clouds Through Time Delay Light-Curve Anomalies of Gravitational Lenses

Intensive monitoring campaigns have recently attempted to measure the time delays between multiple images of gravitational lenses. Some of the resulting light-curves show puzzling low-level, rapid variability which is unique to individual images, superimposed on top of (and concurrent with) longer time-scale intrinsic quasar variations which repeat in all images. We demonstrate that both the amplitude and variability time-scale of the rapid light-curve anomalies, as well as the correlation observed between intrinsic and microlensed variability, are naturally explained by stellar microlensing of a smooth accretion disk which is occulted by optically-thick broad-line clouds. The rapid time-scale is caused by the high velocities of the clouds (~5x10^3 km/s), and the low amplitude results from the large number of clouds covering the magnified or demagnified parts of the disk. The observed amplitudes of variations in specific lenses implies that the number of broad-line clouds that cover ~10% of the quasar sky is ~10^5 per 4 pi steradian. This is comparable to the expected number of broad line clouds in models where the clouds originate from bloated stars.

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