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A consistent determination of the temperature of the intergalactic medium at redshift z=2.4

Bolton, James S.; Becker, George D.; Haehnelt, Martin G; Viel, Matteo

A consistent determination of the temperature of the intergalactic medium at redshift z=2.4 Thumbnail


Authors

George D. Becker

Martin G Haehnelt

Matteo Viel



Abstract

We present new measurements of the thermal state of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at z∼2.4 derived from absorption line profiles in the Lyα forest. We use a large set of high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations to calibrate the relationship between the temperature-density (T--Δ) relation in the IGM and the distribution of HI column densities, NHI, and velocity widths, bHI, of discrete Lyα forest absorbers. This calibration is then applied to the measurement of the lower cut-off of the bHI--NHI distribution recently presented by Rudie et al. (2012). We infer a power-law T--Δ relation, T=T0Δγ−1, with a temperature at mean density, T0=[1.00+0.32−0.21]×104K and slope (γ−1)=0.54±0.11. The slope is fully consistent with that advocated by the analysis of Rudie et al (2012); however, the temperature at mean density is lower by almost a factor of two, primarily due to an adjustment in the relationship between column density and physical density assumed by these authors. These new results are in excellent agreement with the recent temperature measurements of Becker et al. (2011), based on the curvature of the transmitted flux in the Lyα forest. This suggests that the thermal state of the IGM at this redshift is reasonably well characterised over the range of densities probed by these methods.

Citation

Bolton, J. S., Becker, G. D., Haehnelt, M. G., & Viel, M. (2014). A consistent determination of the temperature of the intergalactic medium at redshift z=2.4. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 438, https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stt2374

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 5, 2013
Online Publication Date Jan 10, 2014
Publication Date Mar 1, 2014
Deposit Date Jul 4, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN 0035-8711
Electronic ISSN 1365-2966
Publisher Oxford University Press
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 438
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stt2374
Keywords Intergalactic Medium, Quasars, Absorption Lines
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/722415
Publisher URL http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/438/3/2499
Additional Information This article has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©2014 The authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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