Other
Scientific paper
Mar 1994
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994apj...423...73z&link_type=abstract
The Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 423, no. 1, p. 73-93
Other
16
Absorption Spectra, Computerized Simulation, Cosmology, Line Spectra, Lyman Alpha Radiation, Quasars, Intergalactic Media, Pixels, Red Shift, Spectrum Analysis
Scientific paper
The transmission of a quasar spectrum (flux divided by the continuum) is correlated because of the finite width of absorption lines. We describe a technique for calculating the transmission correlation function produced by randomly distributed lines. We also introduce straightforward procedure for measuring the pixel-pixel transmission correlation function xipp directly from observed quasar spectra. We apply the method to 12 Sargent, Boksenberg, & Steidel Quasi-Stellar Objects (QSO) spectra and compare these with theoretical transmission correlation functions and with xipp measured from computer-simulated quasar spectra of Ly(alpha) forest models with Poisson-distributed lines. The simulations are designed to mimic the observed spectrum as closely as possible, with the same wavelength sampling, instrumental resolution, continuum and noise properties. The comparisons with line distributions that are power laws in column density and redshift, and Gaussians in line width b reveal an excess in the observed xipp at Delta(v) is approximately or equal to 150 km/s, if we adopt the Carswell et al. (1991) parameters for the Gaussian (mean b0 = 30 km/s, dispersion sigmab = 10 km/s). One possibility is that the Ly(alpha) forest lines are actually clustered at velocity separation scales Delta(v) is approximately or equal to 150 km/s. Another possibility we explore is that the b-distribution has more large b clouds and a larger dispersion. We find the observed xipp is barely consistent with b0 = 40 km/s and sigmab = 25 km/s. We show that the measured xipp is relatively insensitive to the noise level and to errors in the continuum determination, unlike the traditional line counting methods, where the outcome is quite vulnerable to both. It also requires no line deblending and thus offers a powerful tool for extracting information from the crowded Ly(alpha) forest.
Bond Richard J.
Zuo Lin
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