HeII photoionization rates of quasars Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Schmidt T.M.
  2. Worseck G.
  3. Hennawi J.F.
  4. Prochaska J.X.
  5. Crighton N.H.M.
  6. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

The HeII transverse proximity effect-enhanced HeII Ly{alpha} transmission in a background sightline caused by the ionizing radiation of a foreground quasar-offers a unique opportunity to probe the morphology of quasar-driven HeII reionization. We conduct a comprehensive spectroscopic survey to find z~3 quasars in the foreground of 22 background quasar sightlines with Hubble Space Telescope/COS HeII Ly{alpha} transmission spectra. With our two-tiered survey strategy, consisting of a deep pencil-beam survey and a shallow wide-field survey, we discover 131 new quasars, which we complement with known SDSS/BOSS quasars in our fields. Using a restricted sample of 66 foreground quasars with inferred HeII photoionization rates greater than the expected UV background at these redshifts ({Gamma}_QSO_^HeII^>5x10^-16^s^-1^) we perform the first statistical analysis of the HeII transverse proximity effect. Our results show qualitative evidence for a large object-to-object variance: among the four foreground quasars with the highest {Gamma}_QSO_^HeII^ only one (previously known) quasar is associated with a significant HeII transmission spike. We perform a stacking analysis to average down these fluctuations, and detect an excess in the average HeII transmission near the foreground quasars at 3{sigma} significance. This statistical evidence for the transverse proximity effect is corroborated by a clear dependence of the signal strength on {Gamma}_QSO_^HeII^. Our detection places a purely geometrical lower limit on the quasar lifetime of t_Q_>25Myr. Improved modeling would additionally constrain quasar obscuration and the mean free path of HeII-ionizing photons.

Keywords
  1. quasars
  2. intergalactic-medium
  3. redshifted
  4. visible-astronomy
  5. spectroscopy
  6. ultraviolet-astronomy
  7. surveys
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2017ApJ...847...81S
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IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/847/81
Document Object Identifer DOI
doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.18470081

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History

2018-06-29T09:42:39Z
Resource record created
2018-06-29T09:42:39Z
Created
2020-02-03T08:45:25Z
Updated

Contact

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CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
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