No Arabic abstract
We study the effect of local stellar radiation and UVB on the physical properties of DLAs and LLSs at z=3 using cosmological SPH simulations. We post-process our simulations with the ART code for radiative transfer of local stellar radiation and UVB. We find that the DLA and LLS cross sections are significantly reduced by the UVB, whereas the local stellar radiation does not affect them very much except in the low-mass halos. This is because clumpy high-density clouds near young star clusters effectively absorb most of the ionizing photons from young stars. We also find that the UVB model with a simple density threshold for self-shielding effect can reproduce the observed column density distribution function of DLAs and LLSs very well, and we validate this model by direct radiative transfer calculations of stellar radiation and UVB with high angular resolution. We show that, with a self-shielding treatment, the DLAs have an extended distribution around star-forming regions typically on ~ 10-30 kpc scales, and LLSs are surrounding DLAs on ~ 30-60 kpc scales. Our simulations suggest that the median properties of DLA host haloes are: Mh = 2.4*10^10 Msun, SFR = 0.3 Msun/yr, M* = 2.4*10^8 Msun, and Z/Zsun = 0.1. About 30 per cent of DLAs are hosted by haloes having SFR = 1 - 20 Msun/yr, which is the typical SFR range for LBGs. More than half of DLAs are hosted by the LBGs that are fainter than the current observational limit. Our results suggest that fractional contribution to LLSs from lower mass haloes is greater than for DLAs. Therefore the median values of LLS host haloes are somewhat lower with Mh = 9.6*10^9 Msun, SFR = 0.06 Msun/yr, M* = 6.5*10^7 Msun and Z/Zsun = 0.08. About 80 per cent of total LLS cross section are hosted by haloes with SFR < 1 Msun/yr, hence most LLSs are associated with low-mass halos with faint LBGs below the current detection limit.
A numerical code for solving various Lyman alpha (Lya) radiative transfer (RT) problems is presented. The code is suitable for an arbitrary, three-dimensional distribution of Lya emissivity, gas temperature, density, and velocity field. Capable of handling Lya RT in an adaptively refined grid-based structure, it enables detailed investigation of the effects of clumpiness of the interstellar (or intergalactic) medium. The code is tested against various geometrically and physically idealized configurations for which analytical solutions exist, and subsequently applied to three Lyman-break galaxies, extracted from high-resolution cosmological simulations at redshift z = 3.6. Proper treatment of the Lya scattering reveals a diversity of surface brightness (SB) and line profiles. Specifically, for a given galaxy the maximum observed SB can vary by an order of magnitude, and the total flux by a factor of 3 - 6, depending on the viewing angle. This may provide an explanation for differences in observed properties of high-redshift galaxies, and in particular a possible physical link between Lyman-break galaxies and regular Lya emitters.
We have obtained high signal:to:noise optical spectroscopy at 5AA resolution of 27 quasars from the APM z$>$4 quasar survey. The spectra have been analyzed to create new samples of high redshift Lyman-limit and damped Lyman-$alpha$ absorbers. These data have been combined with published data sets in a study of the redshift evolution and the column density distribution function for absorbers with $log$N(HI)$ge17.5$, over the redshift range 0.01 $<$ z $<$ 5. The main results are: begin{itemize} item Lyman limit systems: The data are well fit by a power law $N(z) = N_0(1 + z)^{gamma}$ for the number density per unit redshift. For the first time intrinsic evolution is detected in the product of the absorption cross-section and comoving spatial number density for an $Omega = 1$ Universe. We find $gamma = 1.55$ ($gamma = 0.5$ for no evolution) and $N_0 = 0.27$ with $>$99.7% confidence limits for $gamma$ of 0.82 & 2.37. item Damped lya systems: The APM QSOs provide a substantial increase in the redshift path available for damped surveys for $z>3$. Eleven candidate and three confirmed damped Ly$alpha$ absorption systems, have been identified in the APM QSO spectra covering the redshift range $2.8le z le 4.4$ (11 with $z>3.5$). Combining the APM survey confirmed and candidate damped lya absorbers with previous surveys, we find evidence for a turnover at z$sim$3 or a flattening at z$sim$2 in the cosmological mass density of neutral gas, $Omega_g$. end{itemize} The Lyman limit survey results are published in Storrie-Lombardi, et~al., 1994, ApJ, 427, L13. Here we describe the results for the DLA population of absorbers.
We study the properties of Lyman-alpha emitters (LAEs) and Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) at z=3-6 using cosmological SPH simulations. We investigate two simple scenarios for explaining the observed Ly-a and rest-frame UV luminosity functions (LFs) of LAEs: (i) the escape fraction scenario, in which the effective escape fraction (including the IGM attenuation) of Ly-a photons is f_Lya ~0.1 (0.15) at z=3 (6), and (ii) the stochastic scenario, in which the fraction of LAEs that are turned on at z=3 (6) is Cstoc ~0.07 (0.2) after correcting for the IGM attenuation. Our comparisons with a number of different observations suggest that the stochastic scenario is preferred over the escape fraction scenario. We find that the mean values of stellar mass, metallicity and black hole mass hosted by LAEs are all smaller in the stochastic scenario than in the escape fraction scenario. In our simulations, the galaxy stellar mass function evolves rapidly, as expected in hierarchical structure formation. However, its evolution is largely compensated by a beginning decline in the specific star formation rate, resulting in little evolution of the rest-frame UV LF from z=6 to 3. The rest-frame UV LF of both LAEs and LBGs at z=3 & 6 can be described well by the stochastic scenario provided the extinction is moderate, E(B-V) ~0.15, for both populations, although our simulation might be overpredicting the number of bright LBGs at z=6. We also discuss the correlation function and bias of LAEs. The Ly-a LFs at z=6 in a field-of-view of 0.2 deg^2 show a significantly larger scatter owing to cosmic variance relative to that in a 1 deg^2 field, and the scatter seen in the current observational estimates of the Ly-a LF can be accounted for by cosmic variance.
We compute the z = 3 neutral hydrogen column density distribution function f(NHI) for 19 simulations drawn from the OWLS project using a post-processing correction for self-shielding calculated with full radiative transfer of the ionising background radiation. We investigate how different physical processes and parameters affect the abundance of Lyman-limit systems (LLSs) and damped Lyman-alpha absorbers (DLAs) including: i) metal-line cooling; ii) the efficiency of feedback from SNe and AGN; iii) the effective equation of state for the ISM; iv) cosmological parameters; v) the assumed star formation law and; vi) the timing of hydrogen reionization . We find that the normalisation and slope, D = d log10 f /d log10 NHI, of f(NHI) in the LLS regime are robust to changes in these physical processes. Among physically plausible models, f(NHI) varies by less than 0.2 dex and D varies by less than 0.18 for LLSs. This is primarily due to the fact that these uncertain physical processes mostly affect star-forming gas which contributes less than 10% to f(NHI) in the the LLS column density range. At higher column densities, variations in f(NHI) become larger (approximately 0.5 dex at NHI = 10^22 cm^-2 and 1.0 dex at NHI = 10^23 cm^-2) and molecular hydrogen formation also becomes important. Many of these changes can be explained in the context of self-regulated star formation in which the amount of star forming gas in a galaxy will adjust such that outflows driven by feedback balance inflows due to accretion. Data and code to reproduce all figures can be found at the following url: https://bitbucket.org/galtay/hi-cddf-owls-1
We report evidence for a bimodality in damped Ly systems (DLAs). Using [C II] 158 mu cooling rates, lc, we find a distribution with peaks at lc=10^-27.4 and 10^-26.6 ergs s^-1 H^-1 separated by a trough at lc^crit ~= lc < 10^-27.0 ergs s^-1 H^-1. We divide the sample into low cool DLAs with lc < lc^crit and high cool DLAs with lc > lc^crit and find the Kolmogorv-Smirnov probabilities that velocity width, metallicity, dust-to-gas ratio, and Si II equivalent width in the two subsamples are drawn from the same parent population are small. All these quantities are significantly larger in the high cool population, while the H I column densities are indistinguishable in the two populations. We find that heating by X-ray and FUV background radiation is insufficient to balance the cooling rates of either population. Rather, the DLA gas is heated by local radiation fields. The rare appearance of faint, extended objects in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field rules out in situ star formation as the dominant star-formation mode for the high cool population, but is compatible with in situ star formation as the dominant mode for the low cool population. Star formation in the high cool DLAs likely arises in Lyman Break galaxies. We investigate whether these properties of DLAs are analogous to the bimodal properties of nearby galaxies. Using Si II equivalent width as a mass indicator, we construct bivariate distributions of metallicity, lc, and areal SFR versus the mass indicators. Tentative evidence is found for correlations and parallel sequences, which suggest similarities between DLAs and nearby galaxies. We suggest that the transition-mass model provides a plausible scenario for the bimodality we have found. As a result, the bimodality in current galaxies may have originated in DLAs.