J/ApJ/904/44ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/904/44doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.19040044CDSHasan F.Churchill C.W.Stemock B.Mathes N.L.Nielsen N.M.,Finlator K.Doughty C.Croom M.Kacprzak G.G.Murphy M.T.2022-06-13T09:48:40Z2022-03-29T06:36:25ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.frquasarsvisible-astronomyspectroscopyultraviolet-astronomyinfrared-astronomyredshiftedWe present a large high-resolution study of the distribution and evolution of C^IV^ absorbers, including the weakest population with equivalent widths W_r_<0.3{AA} . By searching 369 high-resolution, high signal-to-noise ratio spectra of quasars at 1.1<=z_em_<=5.3 from Keck/HIRES and VLT/UVES, we find 1268 C^IV^ absorbers with W_r_>~0.05{AA} (our ~50% completeness limit) at redshifts 1.0<=z<=4.75. A Schechter function describes the observed equivalent width distribution with a transition from power-law to exponential decline at W_r_>~0.5{AA} . The power-law slope {alpha} rises by ~7%, and the transition equivalent width W* falls by ~20% from <z>=1.7 to 3.6. We find that the comoving redshift path density, dN/dX, of W_r_>=0.05{AA} absorbers rises by ~1.8 times from z~4.0 to 1.3, while the W_r_>=0.6{AA} dN/dX rises by a factor of ~8.5. We quantify the observed evolution by a model in which dN/dX decreases linearly with increasing redshift. The model suggests that populations with larger W_r_ thresholds evolve faster with redshift and appear later in the universe. The cosmological Technicolor Dawn simulations at z=3-5 overproduce the observed abundance of absorbers with W_r_<=0.3{AA} while yielding better agreement at higher W_r_. Our empirical linear model successfully describes C^IV^ evolution in the simulations and the observed evolution of W_r_>=0.6{AA} C^IV^ for the past ~12Gyr. Combining our measurements with the literature gives us a picture of C^IV^ absorbing structures becoming more numerous and/or larger in physical size over the last ~13Gyr of cosmic time (z~6-0).2020ApJ...904...44Hhttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/904/44CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic serviceIsServedByConesearch servicerelated-toJ/A+A/283/759 : CIV QSO absorption systems (Petitjean+ 1994)J/ApJ/596/768 : Optical depths in 19 QSOs (Schaye+, 2003)J/A+A/473/791 : CIV absorption in DLAs and sub-DLAs systems (Fox+, 2007)J/ApJ/679/194 : Low-z intergalactic medium. III. (Danforth+, 2008)J/ApJ/690/20 : Models of the AGN and black hole populations (Shankar+, 2009)J/ApJ/708/868 : CIV candidates (Cooksey+, 2010)J/MNRAS/401/2715 : CIV column densities in z<2.5 QSOs (D'odorico+, 2010)J/MNRAS/422/3370 : Spatial variation in fine-structure constant (King+, 2012)J/ApJ/761/112 : High-redshift MgII absorption QSOs with FIRE (Matejek+, 2012)J/ApJ/755/89 : Metallicities of damped Ly{alpha} systems (Rafelski+, 2012)J/ApJ/763/37 : Metals in SDSS QSOs.I. 1.5<z<4.5 CIV absorbers (Cooksey+, 2013)J/MNRAS/435/1198 : z~6 QSOs CIV doublet absorption systems (D'Odorico+, 2013)J/ApJ/776/114 : MAGIICAT. I. MgII Absorber-Galaxy Catalog (Nielsen+, 2013)J/MNRAS/445/2061 : Absorption multiphase circumgalactic medium (Liang+, 2014)J/ApJ/815/91 : z<0.16 CIV absorbers from HST/COS QSO spectra (Burchett+, 2015)J/ApJS/221/32 : Narrow MgII absorption lines from SDSS-DR9Q (Chen+, 2015)J/AJ/150/111 : KODIAQ DR1 (O'Meara+, 2015)J/ApJ/833/283 : HI-selected Lyman limit systems metallicities (Lehner+, 2016)J/A+A/611/A76 : DLAS dust-corrected metallicity (De Cia+, 2018)J/ApJ/883/163 : OI abs. search in Keck & VLT spectra 199 QSOs (Becker+, 2019)J/MNRAS/488/1035 : AGN UV luminosity function (Kulkarni+, 2019)https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/904/44https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/904/44http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/904/44https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/904/44https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/904/44http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/904/44GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapCone search capability for table J/ApJ/904/44/table1 (List of QSO spectra)https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/904/44/table1?https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/904/44/table1?http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/904/44/table1?GETtext/xml+votable180.050000true0.4541667-1.99444440.0055555555555555566/6 8 523 592 993 2098 2172 2611 3971 4175 4259 4354 4448 4481 4623 4660 4696 4807 4946-4947 4950 5035 5039 5051 5270 5306 5333 5563 5696 5825 5886 5952 6010 6028 6030 6042 6062 6070 6106 6205 6425 6565 6576 6579 6644 6652 6853 7291 7309 7500 7709 7857 7964 8192 8303 8343 8371 8709 9114 9138 9272 9464 9730 9806 9827 9946 9973 10074 10103 10140 10188 10312 10405 10495 10501 10602 10698 10752-10753 10843 10992 11040 11092 11107 11113 11283 11321 11339 11418 11498 11723 11765 11786 11796 12378 12563 14946 16268 16386 16500 16555 16585 16589 16597 16640 16652 16654 16664 16717 16752 16798 16831 17011 17244 17257 17299 17314 17319 17404 17406 17516 17518 17693 17730 17749 17751 17755 17772 17778 17812-17813 17833 17836 17895 17917 17979 17999 18002 18004 18007 18028-18030 18042 18060 18101 18177 18208-18209 18299 18366 18389 18408 18466 18504 18520-18521 18582 18624 18642 18661 18880 19026 19101 19154 19166 19408 19416 19461 19483 19490 19494 19688 19734 19779 19993 20016 20032 20202 20725 21885 22576 22593-22594 22715 23099 23190-23191 23203 23210 23304 23397 24809 24941 25307 25344 25413 25427 25628 25827 25829 25850 25932-25933 25972 25976 25986-25987 26000 26019 26100 26125 26165 26167 26170 26258 26269 26276 26362 26398 26429 26453 26462 26533 26553 26603 26724 26846 26881 27002 27037 27053 27092 27225 27247 27365 27415 27423 27437 27460 27485 27508 27510 27549 27554 27577 27654 27658 27667 27704 27749 27773 27803 27841 27855 27879 27909 27943 28086 28171 28174 28197 28356 28539 28614 28651 31313 31331 31451 31520 31551 31622 31656 32466 33971 34044 34264 34291 34424 34437 34461 34517 34582 34950 35006 35241 35277 35281 35522 35570 35585 35737 35751 35760 35769 35772 35774 35781 35945 36086 36090 36126 36130 36151 36241 36320 36346 36495 36554 36655 36734 36784 36803 36834 36840 38639 38744 38767 38787 38853 38878 39456 40060 40274 43983 44000 44028 44799 44833 45006 45011 45460 46251 46373 46527 46542 46649 46651 46737 46753 46856 46924 46953 47016 47091 47553 48149 48154 48478 48498 48567 49086 49100https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/moc/J/ApJ/904/44?format=asciiUVOpticalInfrareddefaultJ/ApJ/904/44/table1List of QSO spectrarecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintQSOQuasar name in J2000 format (1)meta.id;meta.maincharprimaryz[1.16/5.3] Quasar emission redshiftsrc.redshiftfloatInstQuasar spectrum observation facilitymeta.id;instrcharwmin[2636/7648] Minimum wavelength CIV search space (2)0.1nmem.wlintwmax[3302/9578] Maximum wavelength CIV search space (3)0.1nmem.wlintNpropNumber of absorber properties (table2)meta.numberintnullable_RAPosition from QSO identifier (right ascension part)degpos.eq.ra;meta.main_DEPosition from QSO identifier (declination part)degpos.eq.dec;meta.mainJ/ApJ/904/44/table2Data of C^IV^ absorber propertiesrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintQSOQuasar name in J2000 formatmeta.id;meta.maincharz[1.04/4.72] CIV absorber redshiftsrc.redshiftdoubleW1548[0.05/4.23] CIV 1548 rest-frame equivalent width0.1nmspect.line.eqWidthfloate_W1548[0.001/0.2] Uncertainty in W15480.1nmstat.errorfloatl_NaodUpper limit flag for Naodmeta.code.errorcharNaod[13.1/15.5] log10 Apparent Optical Depth (AOD) column density, atoms/cm^2^log(cm**-2)phys.absorption.opticalDepthfloatE_Naod[0/0.1]? Upward uncertainty in Naod (1)log(cm**-2)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablee_Naod[0.01/0.2]? Downward uncertainty in Naodlog(cm**-2)stat.errorfloatnullable