QSOs Lyman alpha emission line spectra Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Kramer R.H.
  2. Haiman Z.
  3. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

Arguably the best hope of understanding the tail end of the re-ionization of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at redshift z>6 is through the detection and characterization of the Gunn-Peterson damping wing absorption of the IGM in bright quasar spectra. However, the use of quasar spectra to measure the IGM damping wing requires a model of the quasar's intrinsic Lyman{alpha} emission line. Here we quantify the uncertainties in the intrinsic line shapes, and how those uncertainties affect the determination of the IGM neutral fraction. We have assembled a catalogue of high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope spectra of the emission lines of unobscured low-redshift quasars, and have characterized the variance in the shapes of their lines. We then add simulated absorption from the high-redshift IGM to these quasar spectra in order to determine the corresponding uncertainties in re-ionization constraints using current and future samples of z>6 quasar spectra. We find that, if the redshift of the Lyman{alpha} emission line is presumed to coincide with the systemic redshift determined from metal lines, the inferred IGM neutral fraction is systematically biased to low values due to a systematic blueshift of the Lyman{alpha} line relative to the metal lines.

Keywords
  1. quasars
  2. spectroscopy
  3. ultraviolet-astronomy
  4. line-intensities
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2009MNRAS.400.1493K
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/MNRAS/400/1493
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/MNRAS/400/1493
Document Object Identifer DOI
doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.74001493

Access

Web browser access HTML
http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/400/1493
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/400/1493
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/MNRAS/400/1493
IVOA Table Access TAP
http://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tap
Run SQL-like queries with TAP-enabled clients (e.g., TOPCAT).
IVOA Cone Search SCS
For use with a cone search client (e.g., TOPCAT).
http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/400/1493/table1?
https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/400/1493/table1?
http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/MNRAS/400/1493/table1?

History

2012-01-02T12:16:06Z
Resource record created
2012-01-02T12:16:06Z
Created
2024-07-09T20:16:09Z
Updated

Contact

Name
CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
E-Mail
cds-question@unistra.fr