Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer Observations of the Low-Redshift Lyβ Forest

Details Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer Observations of the Low-Redshift Lyβ Forest Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer Observations of the Low-Redshift Lyβ Forest

Jul 2000

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000apj...538l..13s&link_type=abstract

The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 538, Issue 1, pp. L13-L16.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

39

Galaxies: Intergalactic Medium, Galaxies: Quasars: Absorption Lines, Ultraviolet: Galaxies

Scientific paper

We describe a moderate-resolution (20-25 km s-1) Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) study of the low-redshift intergalactic medium. We report on studies of seven extragalactic sight lines and 12 Lyβ absorbers that correspond to Lyα lines detected by Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. These absorbers appear to contain a significant fraction of the low-z baryons and were a major discovery of the HST spectrographs. Using FUSE data, with 40 mÅ (4 σ) Lyβ detection limits, we have employed the equivalent width ratio of Lyβ/Lyα, and occasionally higher Lyman lines, to determine the Doppler parameter b and accurate column densities NHI for moderately saturated lines. We detect Lyβ absorption corresponding to all Lyα lines with Wλ>=200 mÅ. The Lyβ/Lyα ratios yield a preliminary distribution function of Doppler parameters, with mean =31.4+/-7.4 km s-1 and median 28 km s-1, comparable to values at redshifts z=2.0-2.5. If thermal, these b-values correspond to THI~50,000 K, although the inferred Doppler parameters are considerably less than the widths derived from Lyα profile fitting, =0.52. The typical increase in column density over that derived from profile fitting is ΔlogNHI=0.3, but ranges up to 1.0 dex. Our data suggest that the low-z Lyα absorbers contain sizable nonthermal motions or velocity components in the line profile, perhaps arising from cosmological expansion and infall.