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The Evolution of the Effective Equation of State of the Intergalactic Medium
- Source :
- The Astrophysical Journal. 534:41-56
- Publication Year :
- 2000
- Publisher :
- American Astronomical Society, 2000.
-
Abstract
- We develop a method to extract the "effective equation of state" of the intergalactic medium from the doppler b parameter distribution of the low-density Lyman-alpha forest. We test the method on numerical simulations and then apply it to published observations of the Lyman-alpha forest at redshifts z from 0 to 4. We find that the effective equation of state is close to isothermal at redshift z=3, indicating that a second reheating of the IGM took place at z=3. This reheating can plausibly be identified with the reionization of HeII observed to occur at z about 3.
- Subjects :
- Physics
Parameter distribution
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics
State (functional analysis)
Redshift
Isothermal process
symbols.namesake
Space and Planetary Science
Intergalactic medium
symbols
Doppler effect
Reionization
Effective equation
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15384357 and 0004637X
- Volume :
- 534
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........03d488205b4af501f68d43fa18e78c32