J/ApJ/935/121ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/935/121doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.19350121CDSYang LiZheng Z.du Mas des Bourboux H.Dawson K.Pieri M.M.,Rossi G.Schneider D.P.de la Macorra A.Gutierrez A.M.2024-11-06T20:26:38Z2024-08-09T07:57:35ZCDS support team

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

cds-question@unistra.frquasarsintergalactic-mediumspectroscopyultraviolet-astronomyWe investigate the metal species associated with the Ly{alpha} forest in eBOSS quasar spectra. Metal absorption lines are revealed in stacked spectra from cross-correlating the selected Ly{alpha} absorbers in the forest and the flux fluctuation field. Up to 13 metal species are identified as being associated with relatively strong Ly{alpha} absorbers (those with flux fluctuations -1.0<{delta}Ly{alpha}<-0.6 and with a neutral hydrogen column density of ~1015^-16^/cm^2^) over the absorber redshift range of 2<zabs<4. The column densities of these species decrease toward higher redshift and for weaker Ly{alpha} absorbers. From modeling the column densities of various species, we find that the column density pattern suggests contributions from multiple gas components, both in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) and the intergalactic medium (IGM). While the low-ionization species (e.g., C II, Si II, and Mg II) can be explained by high-density, cool gas (T~104 K) from the CGM, the high-ionization species may reside in low-density or high- temperature gas in the IGM. The measurements provide inputs for modeling the metal contamination in the Ly{alpha} forest baryon acoustic oscillation measurements. Comparisons with metal absorptions in high-resolution quasar spectra and hydrodynamic galaxy formation simulations can further elucidate the physical conditions of these Ly{alpha} absorbers.2022ApJ...935..121Yhttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/935/121CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic servicerelated-toVII/260 : The SDSS-DR7 quasar catalog (Schneider+, 2010)V/154 : Sloan Digital Sky Surveys (SDSS), Release 16 (DR16) (Ahumada+, 2020)VII/289 : SDSS quasar catalog, sixteenth data release (DR16Q) (Lyke+, 2020)J/ApJ/596/768 : Optical depths in 19 QSOs (Schaye+, 2003)J/MNRAS/456/3509 : Optically thin CIII absorbers at z~2.5 (Kim+, 2016)J/ApJ/833/283 : HIselected Lyman limit systems metallicities (Lehner+, 2016)J/ApJ/887/5 : COS CGM compendium III. z<=1 Ly{alpha} syst. (Lehner+, 2019)J/MNRAS/498/1951 : Lyman limit systems large quasar surveys (Fumagalli+, 2020)J/ApJS/258/18 : Damped Ly{alpha} systems from SDSS DR16Q (Chabanier+, 2022)https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/935/121https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/935/121http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/935/121https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/935/121https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/935/121http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/935/121GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapUVdefaultJ/ApJ/935/121/fig3*Illustration of the stacked spectrumrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintWave[900/2880] Vacuum wavelength0.1nmem.wldoubleFlux[-0.96/0.05] Flux fluctuation fieldphot.fluxdoublee_Flux[0.0002/0.04] Uncertainty in Fluxstat.error;phot.fluxdouble