1,899 research outputs found
Molecular Hydrogen in a Damped Lyman-alpha System at z_abs=4.224
We present the direct detection of molecular hydrogen at the highest redshift
known today (z_abs=4.224) in a Damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) system toward the
quasar PSS J1443+2724. This absorber is remarkable for having one of the
highest metallicities amongst DLA systems at z_abs>3, with a measured iron
abundance relative to Solar of -1.12+/-0.10. We provide for the first time in
this system accurate measurements of NI, MgII, SII and ArI column densities.
The sulfur and nitrogen abundances relative to Solar, -0.63+/-0.10 and
-1.38+/-0.10 respectively, correspond exactly to the primary nitrogen
production plateau. H2 absorption lines are detected in four different
rotational levels (J=0, 1, 2 and 3) of the vibrational ground-state in three
velocity components with total column densities of log N(H2)=17.67, 17.97,
17.48 and 17.26 respectively. The J=4 level is tentatively detected in the
strongest component with log N(H2)~14. The mean molecular fraction is log
f=-2.38+/-0.13, with f=2N(H2)/(2N(H2)+N(HI)). We also measure log
N(HD)/N(H2)<-4.2. The excitation temperatures T_{01} for the two main
components of the system are 96 and 136 K respectively. We argue that the
absorbing galaxy, whose star-formation activity must have started at least
2-5x10^8 yrs before z=4.224, is in a quiescent state at the time of
observation. The density of the gas is small, n_H<=50 cm^{-3}, and the
temperature is of the order of T~90-180 K. The high excitation of neutral
carbon in one of the components can be explained if the temperature of the
Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation has the value expected at the absorber
redshift, T=14.2 K.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
Does the proton-to-electron mass ratio vary in the course of cosmological evolution?
The possible cosmological variation of the proton-to-electron mass ratio was
estimated by measuring the H_2 wavelengths in the high-resolution spectrum of
the quasar Q~0347-382. Our analysis yielded an estimate for the possible
deviation of \mu value in the past, 10 Gyr ago: for the unweighted value
; for the weighted value Since the significance of the both
results does not exceed 3, further observations are needed to increase
the statistical significance. In any case, this result may be considered as the
most stringent estimate on an upper limit of a possible variation of \mu (95%
C.L.): This value serves as an
effective tool for selection of models determining a relation between possible
cosmological deviations of the fine-structure constant \alpha and the
elementary particle masses (m, m, etc.).Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. Talk presented at the JENAM 2002 Workshop on
Varying Fundamental Constants, Porto, 4th September 2002. To be published in
the Conference Proceeding
Large-Scale Correlations in the Lyman-alpha Forest at z = 3-4
We present a study of the spatial coherence of the intergalactic medium
toward two pairs of high-redshift quasars with moderate angular separations
observed with Keck/ESI, Q1422+2309A/Q1424+2255 (z_em = 3.63, theta = 39") and
Q1439-0034A/B (z_em = 4.25, theta = 33"). The crosscorrelation of transmitted
flux in the Lyman-alpha forest shows a 5-7 sigma peak at zero velocity lag for
both pairs. This strongly suggests that at least some of the absorbing
structures span the 230-300/h_70 proper kpc transverse separation between
sightlines. We also statistically examine the similarity between paired spectra
as a function of transmitted flux, a measure which may be useful for comparison
with numerical simulations. In investigating the dependence of the correlation
functions on spectral characteristics, we find that photon noise has little
impact for S/N >~ 10 per resolution element. However, the agreement between the
autocorrelation along the line sight and the crosscorrelation between
sightlines, a potential test of cosmological geometry, depends significantly on
instrumental resolution. Finally, we present an inventory of metal lines. These
include a a pair of strong C IV systems at z ~ 3.4 appearing only toward
Q1439B, and a Mg II + Fe II system present toward Q1439 A and B at z = 1.68.Comment: 33 pages, 13 figures, submitted to Ap
The Nature of Associated Absorption and the UV-X-ray Connection in 3C 288.1
We discuss new Hubble Space Telescope spectroscopy of the radio-loud quasar,
3C 288.1. The data cover ~590 A to ~1610 A in the quasar rest frame. They
reveal a wealth of associated absorption lines (AALs) with no accompanying
Lyman-limit absorption. The metallic AALs range in ionization from C III and N
III to Ne VIII and Mg X. We use these data and photoionization models to derive
the following properties of the AAL gas: 1) There are multiple ionization zones
within the AAL region, spanning a factor of at least ~50 in ionization
parameter. 2) The overall ionization is consistent with the ``warm'' X-ray
continuum absorbers measured in Seyfert 1 nuclei and other QSOs. However, 3)
the column densities implied by the AALs in 3C 288.1 are too low to produce
significant bound-free absorption at any UV-X-ray wavelengths. Substantial
X-ray absorption would require yet another zone, having a much higher
ionization or a much lower velocity dispersion than the main AAL region. 4) The
total hydrogen column density in the AAL gas is log N_H (cm-2)= 20.2. 5) The
metallicity is roughly half solar. 6) The AALs have deconvolved widths of ~900
km/s and their centroids are consistent with no shift from the quasar systemic
velocity (conservatively within +/-1000 km/s). 7) There are no direct
indicators of the absorber's location in our data, but the high ionization and
high metallicity both suggest a close physical relationship to the quasar/host
galaxy environment. Finally, the UV continuum shape gives no indication of a
``blue bump'' at higher energies. There is a distinct break of unknown origin
at ~1030 A, and the decline toward higher energies (with spectral index alpha =
-1.73, for f_nu ~ nu^alpha) is even steeper than a single power-law
interpolation from 1030 A to soft X-rays.Comment: 27 pages with figures and tables, in press with Ap
High-Resolution Spectroscopy from 3050 to 10000 A of the HDF-S QSO J2233-606 with UVES at the ESO VLT
We report on high-resolution observations () of the Hubble
Deep Field South QSO J2233-606 obtained with the VLT UV-Visual Echelle
Spectrograph (UVES). We present spectral data for the wavelength region \AA. The ratio of the final spectrum is about 50 per
resolution element at 4000 \AA, 90 at 5000 \AA, 80 at 6000 \AA, 40 at 8000 \AA.
Redshifts, column densities and Doppler widths of the absorption features have
been determined with Voigt-profile fitting. A total of 621 lines have been
measured. In particular 270 Ly-alpha lines, 41 Ly-beta and 24 systems
containing metal lines have been identified. Together with other data in the
literature, the present spectrum confirms that the evolution of the number
density of Ly-alpha lines with \huno has an upturn at .Comment: 34 pages Latex, with 3 PostScript figures. Astronomical Journal, in
press. A few revised upper limit
The origin of dispersion in DLA metallicities
Recent chemical abundance measurements of damped Ly-alpha absorbers (DLAs)
revealed an intrinsic scatter in their metallicity of ~0.5 dex out to z~5. In
order to explore the origin of this scatter, we build a semi-analytic model
which traces the chemical evolution of the interstellar matter in small regions
of the Universe with different mean density, from over- to underdense regions.
We show that the different histories of structure formation in these regions,
namely halo abundance, mass and stellar content, is reflected in the chemical
properties of the protogalaxies, and in particular of DLAs. We calculate mean
metallicity-redshift relations and show that the metallicity dispersion arising
from this environmental effect amounts to ~0.25 dex and is an important
contributor to the observed overall intrinsic scatter.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter
Evolution of dispersion in the cosmic deuterium abundance
Deuterium is created during Big Bang Nucleosynthesis, and, in contrast to the
other light stable nuclei, can only be destroyed thereafter by fusion in
stellar interiors. In this paper we study the cosmic evolution of the deuterium
abundance in the interstellar medium and its dispersion using realistic galaxy
evolution models. We find that models that reproduce the observed metal
abundance are compatible with observations of the deuterium abundance in the
local ISM and z ~ 3 absorption line systems. In particular, we reproduce the
low astration factor which we attribute to a low global star formation
efficiency. We calculate the dispersion in deuterium abundance arising from
different structure formation histories in different parts of the Universe. Our
model also predicts an extremely tight correlation between deuterium and metal
abundances which could be used to measure the primordial deuterium abundance.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters.
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Semiclassical approach to the ac-conductance of chaotic cavities
We address frequency-dependent quantum transport through mesoscopic
conductors in the semiclassical limit. By generalizing the trajectory-based
semiclassical theory of dc quantum transport to the ac case, we derive the
average screened conductance as well as ac weak-localization corrections for
chaotic conductors. Thereby we confirm respective random matrix results and
generalize them by accounting for Ehrenfest time effects. We consider the case
of a cavity connected through many leads to a macroscopic circuit which
contains ac-sources. In addition to the reservoir the cavity itself is
capacitively coupled to a gate. By incorporating tunnel barriers between cavity
and leads we obtain results for arbitrary tunnel rates. Finally, based on our
findings we investigate the effect of dephasing on the charge relaxation
resistance of a mesoscopic capacitor in the linear low-frequency regime
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