Can quasars ionize the intergalactic medium?

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

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Absorption Spectra, Environment Effects, Galactic Nuclei, Intergalactic Media, Interstellar Matter, Quasars, Molecular Clouds, Red Shift, Stellar Luminosity

Scientific paper

The authors examine the environmental impact of quasars and active nuclei on the intergalactic medium (IGM) and derive analytic and numerical results for ionization-front expansion as a function of redshift z in an expanding Friedmann cosmology. For an IGM of moderate density (ΩI ≈ 0.1) and a conservative estimate of QSO ionizing spectra, QSOs "turning on" at zon= 4 will not produce a fully ionized IGM until z ≈ 2.5. However, an IGM with ΩI = 0.03 - 0.10 could be ionized between z = 3.3 - 3.7. The authors also investigate the effects of I-fronts on the distribution of "Lyα forest" clouds. The photoionization of intergalactic clouds within ≡10 Mpc of a luminous QSO could explain the "inverse effect", an observed deficit in the distribution of Lyα absorption systems near zem.

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