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Constraining the temperature–density relation of the intergalactic medium with the Lyman α and β forests

Boera, Elisa; Murphy, Michael T.; Becker, George D.; Bolton, James S.

Authors

Elisa Boera

Michael T. Murphy

George D. Becker



Abstract

The post-reionization thermal state of the intergalactic medium is characterized by a power-law relationship between temperature and density, with a slope determined by the parameter ?. We describe a new method to measure ? using the ratio of flux curvature in the Lyman ? and ? forests. At a given redshift, this curvature ratio incorporates information from the different gas densities traced by Lyman ? and ? absorption. It is relatively simple and fast to compute and appears robust against several observational uncertainties. We apply this technique to a sample of 27 high-resolution quasar spectra from the Very Large Telescope. While promising statistical errors on ? appear to be achievable with these spectra, to reach its full potential, the dependence of the curvature ratio on the thermal state of the gas in the foreground Lyman ? forest will require further, detailed forward modelling.

Citation

Boera, E., Murphy, M. T., Becker, G. D., & Bolton, J. S. (2016). Constraining the temperature–density relation of the intergalactic medium with the Lyman α and β forests. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 456(1), L79-L83. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slv172

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 28, 2015
Online Publication Date Dec 10, 2015
Publication Date Feb 11, 2016
Deposit Date May 5, 2017
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 456
Issue 1
Pages L79-L83
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slv172
Keywords intergalactic medium, quasar: absorption lines, cosmology: observations
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/776495
Publisher URL https://academic.oup.com/mnrasl/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/mnrasl/slv172

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