Search

We present new measurements of the thermal state of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at $z\sim2.4$ derived from absorption line profiles in the Ly$\alpha$ forest. We use a large set of high-resolution hydrodynamical simulations to calibrate the relationship between the temperature-density ($T$--$\Delta$) relation in the IGM and the distribution of HI column densities, $N_{\rm HI}$, and velocity widths, $b_{\rm HI}$, of discrete Ly$\alpha$ forest absorbers. This calibration is then applied to the measurement of the lower cut-off of the $b_{\rm HI}$--$N_{\rm HI}$ distribution recently presented by Rudie et al. (2012). We infer a power-law $T$--$\Delta$ relation, $T=T_{0}\Delta^{\gamma-1}$, with a temperature at mean density, $T_{0}=[1.00^{+0.32}_{-0.21}]\times10^{4}\rm\,K$ and slope $(\gamma-1)=0.54\pm0.11$. The slope is fully consistent with that advocated by the analysis of Rudie et al (2012); however, the temperature at mean density is lower by almost a factor of two, primarily due to an adjustment in the relationship between column density and physical density assumed by these authors. These new results are in excellent agreement with the recent temperature measurements of Becker et al. (2011), based on the curvature of the transmitted flux in the Ly$\alpha$ forest. This suggests that the thermal state of the IGM at this redshift is reasonably well characterised over the range of densities probed by these methods., Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, accepted to MNRAS

cited By 10; International audience; We show the approach in the structural and spectroscopic analysis of Yb3+-doped YAG nanoceramics prepared using the low temperature-high pressure sintering technique (LTHP) by conjugation of both TEM-EDX and optical techniques. Pressure sintering dependences of absorption, emission, and decays are analyzed and interpreted. The sample pressurized at 8 GPa for sintering is characterized by the highest transparency and confirms the Y3Al 5O12 garnet structure of the grains of ∼21 nm average size. Yb3+ ion distribution has been analyzed by both TEM-EDX evaluation in grains and grain boundaries and spectroscopy of Yb3+ pairs of small population from the co-operative luminescence phenomenon. EDX analysis at the TEM scale provides unambiguous results on a clear tendency of almost uniform Yb3+ distribution. An important new observation has been made at 4 K and room temperature with the 2F7/2 → 2F5/2 0-phonon absorption line located at 975.7 nm, in addition of the 0-phonon line of the YAG structure of grains at 968 nm similar to that of bulky YAG single crystals. We have discussed the origin of this new 0-phonon line relaxing only by nonradiative transitions and conclude that this line might be assigned to Yb3+ distorted sites on the grain surfaces. © 2014 American Chemical Society.

We report on the detection of a z(gal) = 0.101 galaxy projected on the sky at 4.2 arcsec (or 5.2 h(100)(-1) kpc for q(o) = 0.5) from the quasar Q 0439-433 (z(em) = 0.594). The HST spectrum of the quasar shows strong Mg II, Fe II, Si II, Al II and C IV absorption lines at the same redshift as the galaxy. The equivalent width ratios of the low ionization lines indicate that this system is probably damped with a neutral hydrogen column density of N (H I) similar to 10(20) cm(-2). The C IV doublet presents a complex structure, and in particular a satellite with a velocity v = 1100 km s(-1) relative to the galaxy. Additional HST and redshifted 21 cm observations of this QSO-galaxy pair would offer an ideal opportunity to study the morphology of a damped absorber and the kinematics of the halo of a low-redshift galaxy.

We demonstrate index-coupled distributed-feedback diode lasers at 2.65 μm that are capable of tuning across strong absorption lines of HDO and other isotopologues of H2O. The lasers employ InGaAsSb/AlInGaAsSb multi-quantum-well structures grown by molecular beam epitaxy on GaSb, and single-mode emission is generated using laterally coupled second-order Bragg gratings etched alongside narrow ridge waveguides. We verify nearcritical coupling of the gratings by analyzing the modal characteristics of lasers of different length. With an emission facet anti-reflection coating, 2-mm-long lasers exhibit a typical current threshold of 150 mA at 20 °C and are capable of emitting more than 25 mW in a single longitudinal mode, which is significantly higher than the output power reported for losscoupled distributed-feedback lasers operating at similar wavelengths. © 2013 Optical Society of America.

We present NuSTAR hard X-ray observations of two X-ray weak broad absorption line (BAL) quasars, PG 1004+130 (radio loud) and PG 1700+518 (radio quiet). Many BAL quasars appear X-ray weak, probably due to absorption by the shielding gas between the nucleus and the accretion-disk wind. The two targets are among the optically brightest BAL quasars, yet they are known to be significantly X-ray weak at rest-frame 2-10 keV (16-120 times fainter than typical quasars). We would expect to obtain ~400-600 hard X-ray (>10 keV) photons with NuSTAR, provided that these photons are not significantly absorbed (NH, 18 pages, 9 figures. ApJ in press

We present the first results from an on-going survey to characterize the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of the massive high-redshift galaxies detected as submillimeter galaxies (SMGs). We constructed a parent sample of 163 SMG-QSO pairs with separations less than $\sim$36 arcsec by cross-matching far-infrared-selected galaxies from Herschel with spectroscopically confirmed QSOs. The Herschel sources were selected to match the properties of SMGs. We determined the sub-arcsecond positions of six Herschel sources with the Very Large Array and obtained secure redshift identification for three of those with near-infrared spectroscopy. The QSO sightlines probe transverse proper distances of 112, 157, and 198 kpc at foreground redshifts of 2.043, 2.515, and 2.184, respectively, which are comparable to the virial radius of the $\sim10^{13}$ Msun halos expected to host SMGs. High-quality absorption-line spectroscopy of the QSOs reveals systematically strong HI Lyman-alpha absorption around all three SMGs, with rest-frame equivalent widths of $\sim2-3$ \AA. However, none of the three absorbers exhibits compelling evidence for optically thick HI gas or metal absorption, in contrast to the dominance of strong neutral absorbers in the CGM of luminous $z \sim 2$ QSOs. The low covering factor of optically thick HI gas around SMGs tentatively indicates that SMGs may not have as prominent cool gas reservoirs in their halos as the co-eval QSOs and that they may inhabit less massive halos than previously thought., Comment: ApJ accepted after minor revision

Galaxies grow by accreting gas, which they need to form stars, from their surrounding haloes. These haloes, in turn, accrete gas from the diffuse intergalactic medium. Feedback from stars and black holes returns gas from the galaxy to the halo and can even expel it from the halo. This cycle of gas inflow and outflow, its impact on star formation, and the detectability of the gas outside of galaxies are discussed in this thesis. The growth of galaxies and their gaseous haloes depends strongly on their mass, the age of the Universe, and the inclusion of feedback processes, as do their physical and observational properties.

Recovery of the absolute absorption line shape is demonstrated for methane with a 1650nm edge-emitting laser and for carbon dioxide with a 2004nm VCSEL. The potential for direct detection and wavelength modulation spectroscopy are explored., by A. Upadhyay and Arup Lal Chakraborty

SPIRou is a near-infrared, echelle spectropolarimeter/velocimeter under design for the 3.6m Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The unique scientific capabilities and technical design features are described in the accompanying papers at this conference. In this paper we focus on the data reduction software (DRS) and the data simulation tool. The SPIRou DRS builds upon the experience of the existing SOPHIE, HARPS and ESPADONS spectrographs; class-leaders instruments for high-precision RV measurements and spectropolarimetry. While SPIRou shares many characteristics with these instruments, moving to the near-infrared domain brings specific data-processing challenges: the presence of a large number of telluric absorption lines, strong emission sky lines, thermal background, science arrays with poorer cosmetics, etc. In order for the DRS to be fully functional for SPIRou's first light in 2015, we developed a data simulation tool that incorporates numerous instrumental and observational effects. We present an overview of the DRS and the simulation tool architectures. © 2012 SPIE., Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy II, 1 July 2012 through 4 July 2012, Amsterdam, Series: Proceedings of SPIE; no. 8451

We list wavelengths, statistical weigths and oscillator strengths for 2249 spectral lines arising from the ground states of atoms and ions. The compilation covers all wavelengths longward of the HeII Lyman limit at 227.838 Angstrom and all the ion states of all elements from hydrogen to bismuth (Z = 83) for which reliable data are known. We assign experimental wavelengths to 1086 lines which have oscillator strengths calculated in the Opacity Project, and add 1163 lines which have critically evaluated oscillator strengths from previous compilations. The presented data are to be used for quasar absorption spectra interpretation. We use solar abundances to calculate the expected relative strengths of all absorption lines, and list separately the strongest lines above 228 Angstrom expected in QSO absorption systems, many of which are listed here for the first time. The great majority of strong lines expected in quasar spectra are at lambda

We show that some high-redshift QSO absorption systems that reveal only the H I Lyman series lines at wavelengths visible from the ground may be a new class of ultra-high-ionization metal line systems, with metal lines in the far-UV region which is now being explored with satellites. At high temperatures or in intense radiation fields metal systems will not show the usual C IV absorption, and O VI will become the most prominent metal absorber. At still higher ionization, O VI also becomes weak, and the strongest metal lines are from Ne VIII, Mg X, and Si XII, which have doublets in the range 500-800 angstrom. Hence very high ionization metal systems will not show metal lines in existing spectra. Recent X-ray observations show that galaxy halos contain hot gas, so we predict that far-UV spectra of QSOs will also show this gas.

The three-dimensional distribution of the interstellar matter (or interstellar medium, ISM) in the Galaxy is a very general tool not yet really developed today, a major reason being the difficulty of estimating distances to complexes, what will change soon thanks to the Gaia mission. Indeed the determination of the cloud distances resorts to the absorption measurements method along lines-of-sight toward the stars, and so requires the values of their distance, which will be precisely measured by Gaia. One of the methods allowing to estimate the tree-dimensional structure of the ISM is the inversion of the absorbant columns of gas and dust measured toward a big number of stars situated at different distances and in different directions. The work presented in this thesis contributes to the constitution of the databases necessary for this method, for the nearby interstellar medium, for the study of the results of these inversions, as well as the links between different tracers of the interstellar matter. This is placed in the prospect of the advances which will be allowed in this area thanks to Gaia and the programs supporting the mission. The title of this thesis refers in this sense to the uses of the cartographies of the nearby ISM as test of the inversion tools which must be developped toward the largest scales in the context of the mission, and moreover to the uses of the maps as supports for the determination of stellar parameters, providing constraints on the reddening when it cannot be infered in an independent way by the spectroscopic observations. A first part relates the acquisition and the analysis of spectroscopic data, particularly with the correction of telluric lines and the extraction of the informations from the neutral sodium NaI and the CaII ion interstellar lines. A second part presents the whole results. A third part is dedicated to the 3D distributions obtained by inversion of the database and to the search of links between nearby dense clouds reconstructed in three dimensions and the radio emission measurements by HI and CO. A fourth part is a preliminary study of the analysis of spectroscopic surveys as a support for Gaia. A first section is the study of the uncertainties due to the saturation of the interstellar lines of neutral sodium for the distant stars and the potential methods to reduce them. A second part is dedicated to the extraction of two diffuse interstellar bands and to the study of their correlation with the other tracers, as well as the interpretations of anormal values in these diffuse bands. The first goal of these studies is the search of an evaluation of the extinction independant of the photometric measurements of Gaia, for the distant objects., La distribution tridimensionnelle de la matière interstellaire (ou milieu interstellaire, MIS) dans la Galaxie est un outil très général encore peu développé aujourd'hui, une raison majeur étant la difficulté d'estimer les distances aux complexes nuageux, une situation qui va changer très prochainement grâce à la mission Gaia. En effet, la détermination des distances aux nuages fait appel à la technique des mesures d'absorption le long des lignes de visée vers les étoiles, et donc requiert les valeurs de leurs distances, lesquelles seront précisément mesurées par Gaia. Une des techniques permettant d'estimer la structure 3D du MIS est l'inversion des colonnes absorbantes de gaz et de poussière mesurées vers un grand nombre d'étoiles situées à différentes distances et dans différentes directions. Le travail présenté dans cette thèse contribue à la constitution des bases de données nécessaires à cette technique, pour le milieu interstellaire proche, à l'étude des résultats de ces inversions, ainsi qu'aux liens entre différents traceurs de la matière interstellaire. L'ensemble se place dans la perspective des avancées qui seront permises en ce domaine grâce à Gaia et aux programmes en support à la mission. Le titre de cette thèse fait en ce sens référence aux utilisations des cartographies du MIS proche comme test des outils d'inversion qui doivent être développés vers les plus grandes échelles dans le contexte de la mission, et d'autre part aux utilisations des cartes comme supports à la détermination des paramètres stellaires, en fournissant des contraintes sur le rougissement lorsque celui-ci ne peut être déduit de façon indépendante par les observations spectroscopiques. Une première partie concerne l'acquisition et l'analyse de données spectroscopiques, avec en particulier la correction des raies telluriques et l'extraction des informations sur les raies interstellaires du sodium neutre NaI et du calcium ionisé CaII. Une deuxième partie présente l'ensemble des résultats. Une troisième partie est consacrée aux distributions 3D obtenues par inversion de la base ainsi augmentée, et à la recherche de liens entre les nuages denses proches reconstruits en 3D et les mesures d'émission radio par HI et CO. Une quatrième partie est une étude préparatoire aux analyses des relevés spectroscopiques en support à Gaia. Un premier volet est l'étude des incertitudes liées à la saturation des raies interstellaires du sodium neutre pour les étoiles distantes et aux méthodes potentielles pour les réduire. Un second volet est consacré à l'extraction de deux bandes interstellaires diffuses et à l'étude de leur corrélation avec les autres traceurs, ainsi qu'aux interprétations des valeurs anormales de ces bandes diffuses. Le but premier de ces études est la recherche d'une évaluation de l'extinction indépendante des mesures photométriques de Gaia, pour les objets distants.

[Abridged]. Here, we report on the discovery of the galaxy counterpart of the z_abs=2.58 DLA on the line-of-sight to the z=3.07 quasar SDSS J091826.16+163609.0. The galaxy counterpart of the DLA is detected in the OIII 5007 and OII 3726,3729 emission lines redshifted into the NIR at an impact parameter of 16 kpc. Ly-alpha emission is not detected. The upper limit implies that Ly-alpha emission from this galaxy is suppressed by more than an order of magnitude. The DLA is amongst the most metal-rich DLAs studied so far at comparable redshifts. We find evidence for substantial depletion of refractory elements onto dust grains. Fitting the main metal line component of the DLA, which is located at z_abs=2.5832 and accounts for at least 85% of the total column density of low-ionisation species, we measure metal abundances from ZnII, SII, SiII, CrII, MnII, FeII and NiII of -0.12, -0.26, -0.46, -0.88, -0.92, -1.03 and -0.78, respectively. In addition, we detect absorption in the Lyman and Werner bands of hydrogen, which represents the first detection of H_2 molecules with X-shooter. The background quasar Q0918+1636 is amongst the reddest QSOs at redshifts 3.02, Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 2nd paper in a series for which the first paper is Fynbo et al. (2010), MNRAS, 408, 2128

We quantify the impact of massive neutrinos on the statistics of low-density regions in the intergalactic medium as probed by the Lyman alpha forest at redshifts z = 2.2-4. Based on mock but realistic quasar (QSO) spectra extracted from hydrodynamic simulations with cold dark matter, baryons and neutrinos, we find that the probability distribution of weak Lyman alpha absorption features, as sampled by Lyman alpha flux regions at high transmissivity, is strongly affected by the presence of massive neutrinos. We show that systematic errors affecting the Lyman alpha forest reduce but do not erase the neutrino signal. Using the Fisher matrix formalism, we conclude that the sum of the neutrino masses can be measured, using the method proposed in this paper, with a precision smaller than 0.4 eV using a catalogue of 200 high-resolution (signal-to-noise ratio similar to 100) QSO spectra. This number reduces to 0.27 eV by making use of reasonable priors in the other parameters that also affect the statistics of the high-transitivity regions of the Lyman alpha forest. The constraints obtained with this method can be combined with independent bounds from the cosmic microwave background, large-scale structures and measurements of the matter power spectrum from the Lyman alpha forest to produce tighter upper limits on the sum of the masses of the neutrinos., We thank the referee for the very helpful report. We thank Enzo Branchini, Olga Mena, Jordi Miralda-Escude, Carlos Pena-Garay, Khee-Gan Lee, Jonathan Pritchard and Jesus Zavala for discussions and helpful comments on the manuscript and Volker Springel for providing us with GADGET-3. The simulations were run on the Darwin Supercomputer Centre HPCF in Cambridge (UK) and at the research computing centre of Harvard University. FV-N was supported by the CSIC under the JAE-pre-doc program when this work started. This work was supported in part by grants: ASI/AAE, INFN/PD51, ASI/EUCLID, PRIN-INAF 2009, PRIN-MIUR (for MVi), as well as NSF grant AST-0907890 and NASA grants NNX08AL43G and NNA09DB30A (for AL). MVi and FV-N are supported by the ERC Starting Grant 'CosmoIGM'

Most of the Broad Absorption Lines (BALs) in quasars show very complex profiles. An idea to explain these profiles is that the dynamical systems of broad line regions are not homogeneous but consist of a number of dense regions or ion populations with different physical parameters. This approach is used to study the ultraviolet CIV resonance lines in the spectra of a group of high ionization BAL quasars, using the Gauss-Rotation model.

We have initiated a survey using the newly commissioned X-shooter spectrograph to target candidate relatively metal-rich damped Lyman-alpha absorbers (DLAs). The spectral coverage of X-shooter allows us to search for not only Lyman-alpha emission, but also rest-frame optical emission lines. We have chosen DLAs where the strongest rest-frame optical lines ([OII], [OIII], Hbeta and Halpha) fall in the NIR atmospheric transmission bands. In this first paper resulting from the survey, we report on the discovery of the galaxy counterpart of the z_abs = 2.354 DLA towards the z=2.926 quasar Q2222$-0946. This DLA is amongst the most metal-rich z>2 DLAs studied so far at comparable redshifts and there is evidence for substantial depletion of refractory elements onto dust grains. We measure metallicities from ZnII, SiII, NiII, MnII and FeII of -0.46+/-0.07, -0.51+/-0.06, -0.85+/-0.06, -1.23+/-0.06, and -0.99+/-0.06, respectively. The galaxy is detected in the Lyman-alpha, [OIII] lambda4959,5007 Halpha emission lines at an impact parameter of about 0.8 arcsec (6 kpc at z_abs = 2.354). We infer a star-formation rate of 10 M_sun yr^-1, which is a lower limit due to the possibility of slit-loss. Compared to the recently determined Halpha luminosity function for z=2.2 galaxies the DLA-galaxy counterpart has a luminosity of L~0.1L^*_Halpha. The emission-line ratios are 4.0 (Lyalpha/Halpha) and 1.2 ([OIII]/Halpha). The Lyalpha line shows clear evidence for resonant scattering effects, namely an asymmetric, redshifted (relative to the systemic redshift) component and a much weaker blueshifted component. The fact that the blueshifted component is relatively weak indicates the presence of a galactic wind. The properties of the galaxy counterpart of this DLA is consistent with the prediction that metal-rich DLAs are associated with the most luminous of the DLA-galaxy counterparts., 9 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We searched for mm CO absorption lines towards four QSOs, 0235+164, 0420-014, 1243-072, and 2128-123, at the redshifts (0.4

We compare the improved measurement of the Lya forest flux probability distribution at 1.7, Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS following minor revision. The accepted version includes an expanded discussion of the flux power spectrum

The design model allowing obtaining authentic values of half-width and shift of line centers of HF molecule of hot and cold strips to dissociation limit has been developed. Calculation results of rotary and oscillatory dependences of relaxation parameters of lines HF-HF were obtained

We attempt to characterize the geometry of Broad Absorption Line (BAL) QSOs by studying a low redshift sample of 12 sources. We find that the majority of these sources are Population A quasars as defined in (broad H-beta FWHM > 4000 kms/s; Sulenticet al 2000). A possible correlation between terminal velocity and absolute V magnitude suggests that the bolometric luminosity to black hole mass ratio \lm is a governing factor with classical BAL sources showing the highest values. CIV 1549 emission in classical BAL sources shows a profile blueshift that supports a disk wind/outflow scenario with a half opening angle of < 50 deg. Observation of ``secondary'' mini-BAL features in the CIV 1549 emission profile motivates us to model BALs with an additional component that may be involved with the BLR outflow and co-axial with the accretion disk., Accepted for publication in Revista Mexicana de Astronomia y Astrofisica

Models for the formation of galaxies and clusters of galaxies require strong feedback in order to explain the observed properties of these systems. We investigate whether such feedback has observational consequences for the intergalactic medium, as probed in absorption towards background quasars. A typical quasar sight-line intersects one proto-cluster per unit redshift, and significant feedback from forming galaxies or AGN, heating the proto-cluster gas, will result in a large clearing of reduced absorption in the Lyman alpha-forest. Such a gap could be detected at redshift > 3 when the mean opacity is high. Feedback from Lyman-break galaxies in proto-clusters can be probed by the absorption lines produced in their winds. Strong feedback from galaxies has a major impact on the number and properties of absorption lines with neutral hydrogen column densities of 10^16/ cm^2. This feedback can be probed with multiple sight-lines and by studying the unsaturated higher-order lines of the Lyman series. Galactic winds from dwarf galaxies should break-up into clouds, in order not to over produce the number of absorption lines. These clouds can then coast to large distances., MNRAS published version (minor changes)

Detections of deuterium in high-redshift Lyman limit absorption systems along the line of sight to QSOs promise to reveal the primordial deuterium abundance. At present, the deuterium abundances (D/H) derived from the very few systems observed are significantly discordant. Assuming the validity of all the data, if this discordance does not reflect intrinsic primordial inhomogeneity, then it must arise from processes operating after the primordial nucleosynthesis epoch. We consider processes that might lead to significant deuterium production or destruction and yet allow the cloud to mimic a chemically unevolved system. These processes include, for example, anomalous/stochastic chemical evolution and D/4He photodestruction. In general, we find it unlikely that these processes could have significantly altered D/H in Lyman limit clouds. We argue that chemical evolution scenarios, unless very finely tuned, cannot account for significant local deuterium depletion since they tend to overproduce 12C, even when allowance is made for possible outflow. Similarly, D/4He photodestruction schemes engineered to locally produce or destroy deuterium founder on the necessity of requiring an improbably large γ-ray source density. Future observations of D/H in Lyman limit systems may provide important insight into the initial conditions for the primordial nucleosynthesis process, early chemical evolution, and the galaxy formation process. © 1997. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

We report the first high-resolution spectroscopy study of radiocarbon methane, 14CH4. Several absorption lines of the fundamental vibrational band v3 were measured using a continuous-wave mid-infrared optical parametric oscillator with cantilever-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy.