577 research outputs found
The Gunn-Peterson effect and the Lyman alpha forest
We show that spatial correlations in a stochastic large scale velocity field
in an otherwise smooth intergalactic medium (homogeneous comoving density)
superposed on the general Hubble flow, may cause a `line-like' structure in QSO
spectra similar to the population of unsaturated Ly-alpha forest lines which
usually are attributed to individual clouds with 10^{11} <= N(HI) <= 5*10^{13}
cm^{-2}. Therefore there is no clear observational distinction between a
diffuse intergalactic medium and discrete intergalactic clouds. It follows that
the HI-density in the diffuse intergalactic medium might be substantially
underestimated if it is determined from the observed intensity distribution
near the apparent continuum in high resolution spectra of QSOs. Our tentative
estimate implies a diffuse neutral hydrogen opacity tau_{GP} = 0.3 at z = 3 and
a current baryon density Omega_{IGM} = 0.08$, assuming a Hubble constant H = 70
km s^{-1} Mpc^{-1}.Comment: 9 pages, 3 Postscript figures, a MNRAS Letters submissio
Argon and Silicon abundances in the damped Ly-alpha system I Zw 18
We show that the difference between the Ar and Si relative abundance ratio
derived from FUSE absorption spectra and from the HII regions of I Zw 18 is a
consequence of the microturbulent analysis applied to the absorption spectra.
FUSE observations were performed with a large entrance aperture which fully
covered the galaxy. This means that the observed profiles are averaged over the
full body of I Zw 18, implying that large-scale velocity fields influence the
absorption - line profiles. Taking this into account, we show that the
absorption spectra are consistent with the same metal abundances as those
derived from the HII regions. It follows that no significant ionization
correction as suggested by Izotov and collaborators to describe metal contents
in damped Ly-alpha systems (DLA) is required to model abundances in the neutral
gas of I Zw 18 (a local DLA system). Using a mesoturbulent approach and
applying the generalized radiative transfer equation to the ArI1048 and
SiII1020 lines observed by Vidal-Madjar et al., we found that the profiles may
be reproduced with log (Ar/Si) ~= - 0.8 and N(SiII) ~= 4 10^{15} cm^{-2}.Comment: 4 pages, 2 eps figure, submitted to A
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