2,138 research outputs found
Mission: Impossible (Escape from the Lyman Limit)
We investigate the intrinsic opacity of high-redshift galaxies to outgoing
ionising photons using high-quality photometry of a sample of 27
spectroscopically-identified galaxies of redshift 1.9<z<3.5 in the Hubble Deep
Field. Our measurement is based on maximum-likelihood fitting of model galaxy
spectral energy distributions-including the effects of intrinsic Lyman-limit
absorption and random realizations of intervening Lyman-series and Lyman-limit
absorption-to photometry of galaxies from space- and ground-based broad-band
images. Our method provides several important advantages over the methods used
by previous groups, including most importantly that two-dimensional sky
subtraction of faint-galaxy images is more robust than one-dimensional sky
subtraction of faint-galaxy spectra. We find at the 3sigma statistical
confidence level that on average no more than 4% of the ionising photons escape
galaxies of redshift 1.9<z<3.5. This result is consistent with observations of
low- and moderate-redshift galaxies but is in direct contradiction to a recent
result based on medium-resolution spectroscopy of high-redshift (z~3) galaxies.
Dividing our sample in subsamples according to luminosity, intrinsic
ultraviolet colour, and redshift, we find no evidence for selection effects
that could explain such discrepancy. Even when all systematic effects are
included, the data could not realistically accomodate any escape fraction value
larger than ~15%.Comment: Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
Society. 8 pages, 4 b/w figures, MNRAS styl
Measuring the Radiative Histories of QSOs with the Transverse Proximity Effect
Since the photons that stream from QSOs alter the ionization state of the gas
they traverse, any changes to a QSO's luminosity will produce
outward-propagating ionization gradients in the surrounding intergalactic gas.
This paper shows that at redshift z~3 the gradients will alter the gas's
Lyman-alpha absorption opacity enough to produce a detectable signature in the
spectra of faint background galaxies. By obtaining noisy (S:N~4) low-resolution
(~7A) spectra of a several dozen background galaxies in an R~20' field
surrounding an isotropically radiating 18th magnitude QSO at z=3, it should be
possible to detect any order-of-magnitude changes to the QSO's luminosity over
the previous 50--100 Myr and to measure the time t_Q since the onset of the
QSO's current luminous outburst with an accuracy of ~5 Myr for t_Q<~50 Myr.
Smaller fields-of-view are acceptable for shorter QSO lifetimes. The major
uncertainty, aside from cosmic variance, will be the shape and orientation of
the QSO's ionization cone. This can be determined from the data if the number
of background sources is increased by a factor of a few. The method will then
provide a direct test of unification models for AGN.Comment: Accepted for publication in the ApJ. 16 page
Tomography of high-redshift clusters with OSIRIS
High-redshift clusters of galaxies are amongst the largest cosmic structures.
Their properties and evolution are key ingredients to our understanding of
cosmology: to study the growth of structure from the inhomogeneities of the
cosmic microwave background; the processes of galaxy formation, evolution, and
differentiation; and to measure the cosmological parameters (through their
interaction with the geometry of the universe, the age estimates of their
component galaxies, or the measurement of the amount of matter locked in their
potential wells). However, not much is yet known about the properties of
clusters at redshifts of cosmological interest. We propose here a radically new
method to study large samples of cluster galaxies using microslits to perform
spectroscopy of huge numbers of objects in single fields in a narrow spectral
range-chosen to fit an emission line at the cluster redshift. Our objective is
to obtain spectroscopy in a very restricted wavelength range (~100 A in width)
of several thousands of objects for each single 8x8 square arcmin field.
Approximately 100 of them will be identified as cluster emission-line objects
and will yield basic measurements of the dynamics and the star formation in the
cluster (that figure applies to a cluster at z~0.50, and becomes ~40 and ~20
for clusters at z~0.75 and z~1.00 respectively). This is a pioneering approach
that, once proven, will be followed in combination with photometric redshift
techniques and applied to other astrophysical problems.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures. Proceedings of "Science with the GTC", Granada
(Spain), February 2002, RMxAA in pres
The gaseous extent of galaxies and the origin of Lyman alpha absorption systems. IV: Lyman alpha absorbers arising in a galaxy group
We present new GHRS observations of Lyman alpha absorption lines associated
with a group of galaxies towards the QSO 1545+2101. We have identified eight
distinct Lyman alpha absorption features in the spectrum of QSO 1545+2101 at a
mean redshift of z=0.2648 with a velocity dispersion of 163 km/s. A group of
galaxies is detected in the vicinity of this QSO at a mean redshift of z=0.2645
and velocity dispersion 239 km/s.
The identification of discrete absorption systems indicates that they arise
in clouds of neutral hydrogen rather than in a diffuse intragroup medium. Our
analysis suggests that the Lyman alpha absorption lines are associated with
individual galaxies in the group, although a one-to-one relationship between
absorbers and galaxies is difficult to establish in such a dense environment.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap
Spectrophotometric Redshifts. A New Approach to the Reduction of Noisy Spectra and its Application to GRB090423
We have developed a new method, close in philosophy to the photometric
redshift technique, which can be applied to spectral data of very low
signal-to-noise ratio. Using it we intend to measure redshifts while minimising
the dangers posed by the usual extraction techniques. GRB afterglows have
generally very simple optical spectra over which the separate effects of
absorption and reddening in the GRB host, the intergalactic medium, and our own
Galaxy are superimposed. We model all these effects over a series of template
afterglow spectra to produce a set of clean spectra that reproduce what would
reach our telescope. We also model carefully the effects of the
telescope-spectrograph combination and the properties of noise in the data,
which are then applied on the template spectra. The final templates are
compared to the two-dimensional spectral data, and the basic parameters
(redshift, spectral index, Hydrogen absorption column) are estimated using
statistical tools. We show how our method works by applying it to our data of
the NIR afterglow of GRB090423. At z ~ 8.2, this was the most distant object
ever observed. We use the spectrum taken by our team with the Telescopio
Nazionale Galileo to derive the GRB redshift and its intrinsic neutral Hydrogen
column density. Our best fit yields z=8.4^+0.05/-0.03 and N(HI)<5x10^20 cm^-2,
but with a highly non-Gaussian uncertainty including the redshift range z [6.7,
8.5] at the 2-sigma confidence level. Our method will be useful to maximise the
recovered information from low-quality spectra, particularly when the set of
possible spectra is limited or easily parameterisable while at the same time
ensuring an adequate confidence analysis.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in Astronomy and
Astrophysic
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