12,935 research outputs found
A Unified Fitting of HI and HeII Ly\alpha Transmitted Flux of QSO HE2347 with LCDM Hydrodynamic Simulations
Using cosmological hydrodynamic simulations of the LCDM model, we present a
comparison between the simulation sample and real data sample of HI and HeII
Ly\alpha transmitted flux in the absorption spectra of the QSO HE2347-4342. The
LCDM model is successful in simultaneously explaining the statistical features
of both HI and HeII Ly\alpha transmitted flux. It includes: 1.) the power
spectra of the transmitted flux of HI and HeII can be well fitted on all scales
> 0.28h^{-1} Mpc for H, and > 1.1h^{-1} Mpc for He; 2.) the Doppler parameters
of absorption features of HeII and HI are found to be turbulent-broadening; 3.)
the ratio of HeII to HI optical depths are substantially scattered, due to the
significant effect of noise. A large part of the \eta-scatter is due to the
noise in the HeII flux. However, the real data contain more low-\eta events
than simulation sample. This discrepancy may indicate that the mechanism
leading extra fluctuations upon the simulation data, such as a fluctuating UV
radiation background, is needed. Yet, models of these extra fluctuations should
satisfy the constraints: 1.) if the fluctuations are Gaussian, they should be
limited by the power spectra of observed HI and HeII flux; 2.) if the
fluctuations are non-Gaussian, they should be limited by the observed
non-Gaussian features of the HI and HeII flux.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figs, ApJ in pres
Power spectrum and intermittency of the transmitted flux of QSOs Ly-alpha absorption spectra
Using a set of 28 high resolution, high signal to noise ratio (S/N) QSO
Ly-alpha absorption spectra, we investigate the non-Gaussian features of the
transmitted flux fluctuations, and their effect upon the power spectrum of this
field. We find that the spatial distribution of the local power of the
transmitted flux on scales k >= 0.05 s/km is highly spiky or intermittent. The
probability distribution functions (PDFs) of the local power are long-tailed.
The power on small scales is dominated by small probability events, and
consequently, the uncertainty in the power spectrum of the transmitted flux
field is generally large. This uncertainty arises due to the slow convergence
of an intermittent field to a Gaussian limit required by the central limit
theorem (CLT). To reduce this uncertainty, it is common to estimate the error
of the power spectrum by selecting subsamples with an "optimal" size. We show
that this conventional method actually does not calculate the variance of the
original intermittent field but of a Gaussian field. Based on the analysis of
intermittency, we propose an algorithm to calculate the error. It is based on a
bootstrap re-sampling among all independent local power modes. This estimation
doesn't require any extra parameter like the size of the subsamples, and is
sensitive to the intermittency of the fields. This method effectively reduces
the uncertainty in the power spectrum when the number of independent modes
matches the condition of the CLT convergence.Comment: 26 pages (incl. figures). Accepted for publication in MNRA
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