Journal article
Exploring the thermal state of the low-density intergalactic medium at z = 3 with an ultrahigh signal-to-noise QSO spectrum
A Rorai, GD Becker, MG Haehnelt, RF Carswell, JS Bolton, S Cristiani, V D'Odorico, G Cupani, P Barai, F Calura, TS Kim, E Pomante, E Tescari, M Viel
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society | OXFORD UNIV PRESS | Published : 2017
Abstract
At low densities, the standard ionization history of the intergalactic medium (IGM) predicts a decreasing temperature of the IGM with decreasing density once hydrogen (and helium) reionization is complete. Heating the high-redshift, low-density IGM above the temperature expected from photoheating is difficult, and previous claims of high/rising temperatures in lowdensity regions of the Universe based on the probability density function (PDF) of the opacity in Ly α forest data at 2 < z < 4 have been met with considerable scepticism, particularly since they appear to be in tension with other constraints on the temperature-density relation (TDR). We utilize here an ultrahigh signal-to-noise spe..
View full abstractGrants
Awarded by European Commission
Funding Acknowledgements
We thankVolker Springel for making GADGET-3 available. This work made use of the Distributed Research utilising Advanced Computing High Performance Computing System (HPCS) and the COSMOlogy Supercomputer shared memory service at theUniversity of Cambridge. These are operated on behalf of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) DiRAC HPC facility. This equipment is funded by Department for Business, Innovation and Skills National E-infrastructure capital grant ST/J005673/1 and STFC grants ST/H008586/1, ST/K00333X/1. We acknowledge Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe for awarding us access to the Curie supercomputer, based in France at the Tres Grand Centre de Calcul (TGCC), through the 8th regular call. Support by the European Research Council Advanced Grant 320596 'The Emergence of structure during the epoch of reionization' is gratefully acknowledged. ET is supported by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), through project number CE110001020. AR thanks Joseph F. Hennawi and the ENIGMA group at the Max Planck institute for Astronomy for helpful comments and discussion. MV and TSK acknowledges funding support to the European Research Council Starting Grant 'Cosmology with the IGM' through grant GA-257670. PB is supported by the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica PRIN-2014 grant "Windy black holes combing galaxy evolution".