Quasars as Probes of Late Reionization and Early Structure Formation

Details Quasars as Probes of Late Reionization and Early Structure Formation Quasars as Probes of Late Reionization and Early Structure Formation

2005-09-03

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0509065v1

New Astron.Rev.50:140-145,2006

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

To appear in proceedings of UC Irvine May 2005 workshop on "First Light & Reionization", eds. E. Barton & A. Cooray, New Astro

Scientific paper

10.1016/j.newar.2005.11.015

Observations of QSOs at z ~ 5.7 - 6.4 show the appearance of Gunn-Peterson troughs around z ~ 6, and a change in the slope of the IGM optical depth tau(z) near z ~ 5.5. These results are interpreted as a signature of the end of the reionization era, which probably started at considerably higher redshifts. However, there also appears to be a substantial cosmic variance in the transmission of the IGM, both along some lines of sight, and among different lines of sight, in this intriguing redshift regime. We suggest that this is indicative of a spatially uneven reionization, possibly caused by the bias-driven primordial clustering of the reionization sources. There is also some independent evidence for a strong clustering of QSOs at z ~ 4 - 5 and galaxies around them, supporting the idea of the strong biasing of the first luminous sources at these redshifts. Larger samples of high-z QSOs are needed in order to provide improved, statistically significant constraints for the models of these phenomena. We expect that the Palomar-Quest (PQ) survey will soon provide a new set of QSOs to be used as cosmological probes in this redshift regime.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Quasars as Probes of Late Reionization and Early Structure Formation does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Quasars as Probes of Late Reionization and Early Structure Formation, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Quasars as Probes of Late Reionization and Early Structure Formation will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-56471