Article Dans Une Revue Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Année : 2006

Transverse and longitudinal correlation functions in the intergalactic medium from 32 close pairs of high-redshift quasars

Résumé

We present the transverse flux correlation function of the Lyalpha forest in quasar absorption spectra at z ~ 2.1 from VLT-FORS and VLT-UVES observations of a total of 32 pairs of quasars; 26 pairs with separations in the range 0.6 < theta < 4arcmin and six pairs with 4 < theta < 10arcmin. Correlation is detected at the 3sigma level up to separations of the order of ~4arcmin (or ~4.4 h-1Mpc comoving at z = 2.1 for Omegam = 0.3 and OmegaLambda = 0.7). We have, furthermore, measured the longitudinal correlation function at a somewhat higher mean redshift (z = 2.39) from 20 lines of sight observed with high spectral resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio with VLT-UVES. We compare the observed transverse and longitudinal correlation functions to that obtained from numerical simulations and illustrate the effect of spectral resolution, thermal broadening and peculiar motions. The shape and correlation length of the correlation functions are in good agreement with those expected from absorption by the filamentary and sheet-like structures in the photoionized warm intergalactic medium predicted in cold dark matter (CDM)-like models for structures formation. Using a sample of 139 CIV systems detected along the lines of sight towards the pairs of quasars we also investigate the transverse correlation of metals on the same scales. The observed transverse correlation function of intervening CIV absorption systems is consistent with that of a randomly distributed population of absorbers. This is likely due to the small number of pairs with separation less than 2arcmin. We detect, however, a significant overdensity of systems in the sightlines towards the quartet Q 0103-294A&B, Q 0102-2931 and Q 0102-293 which extends over the redshift range 1.5

Fichier principal
Vignette du fichier
mnras0370-1804.pdf (503.87 Ko) Télécharger le fichier
Origine Fichiers éditeurs autorisés sur une archive ouverte
Licence

Dates et versions

hal-03785415 , version 1 (14-10-2022)

Licence

Identifiants

Citer

F. Coppolani, Patrick Petitjean, F. Stoehr, Emmanuel Rollinde, Christophe Pichon, et al.. Transverse and longitudinal correlation functions in the intergalactic medium from 32 close pairs of high-redshift quasars. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2006, 370, pp.1804-1816. ⟨10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.10601.x⟩. ⟨hal-03785415⟩
97 Consultations
139 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

  • More