New Sightlines for the Study of Intergalactic Helium: A Dozen High-Confidence, UV-Bright Quasars from SDSS/GALEX

Details New Sightlines for the Study of Intergalactic Helium: A Dozen High-Confidence, UV-Bright Quasars from SDSS/GALEX New Sightlines for the Study of Intergalactic Helium: A Dozen High-Confidence, UV-Bright Quasars from SDSS/GALEX

Jul 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006hst..prop10907a&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #10907. Cycle 15

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The reionization of intergalactic helium is thought to have occurred between redshifts of about 3 and 4. Detailed study of HeII Lyman-alpha absorption toward a handful quasars at 2.73.1 quasars potentially suitable for HeII studies. We have cross-correlated SDSS quasars with GALEX UV sources to obtain a dozen new, very high-confidence, candidate quasars/sightlines z=3.1 to 4.1 potentially useful for detailed HeII studies even with current HST instruments. We propose brief, 2-orbit per target, reconnaissance spectral exposures with the ACS SBC prism to definitively verify UV flux down to the HeII break. Our combined SDSS/GALEX selection insures a very high-yield of confirmations, as the quasars are already known to be UV-bright from broadband GALEX images. The additional sightlines, extending to very high-redshift, will directly enable ensemble spectral stacks, as well as long exposure follow-up spectra, at high S/N with the ACS/SBC ultraviolet prisms or perhaps STIS or COS later, to confidently measure the spectrum and evolution of the ionizing background radiation, the evolution of HeII opacity, and the density of intergalactic baryons.

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