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Register a new userExtent and structure of intervening absorbers from absorption lines redshifted on quasar emission lines
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Jacqueline Bergeron
Publication date
2017
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
Authors
Jacqueline Bergeron
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We wish to study the extent and subparsec scale spatial structure of intervening quasar absorbers, mainly those involving neutral and molecular gas. We have selected quasar absorption systems with high spectral resolution and good S/N data, with some of their lines falling on quasar emission features. By investigating the consistency of absorption profiles seen for lines formed either against the quasar continuum source or on the much more extended emission line region (ELR), we can probe the extent and structure of the foreground absorber over the extent of the ELR (0.3-1 pc). The spatial covering analysis provides constraints on the transverse size of the absorber and thus is complementary to variability or photoionisation modelling studies. The methods we used to identify spatial covering or structure effects involve line profile fitting and curve of growth analysis.We have detected three absorbers with unambiguous non uniformity effects in neutral gas. For one extreme case, the FeI absorber at z_abs=0.45206 towards HE 0001-2340, we derive a coverage factor of the ELR of at most 0.10 and possibly very close to zero; this implies an absorber overall size no larger than 0.06 pc. For the z_abs=2.41837 CI absorber towards QSO J1439+1117, absorption is significantly stronger towards the ELR than towards the continuum source in several CI and CI* velocity components pointing to factors of about two spatial variations of their column densities and the presence of structures at the 100 au - 0.1 pc scale. The other systems with firm or possible effects can be described in terms of partial covering of the ELR, with coverage factors in the range 0.7 - 1. The overall results for cold, neutral absorbers imply a transverse extent of about five times or less the ELR size, which is consistent with other known constraints.
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We have monitored 12 intrinsic narrow absorption lines (NALs) in five quasars and seven mini-broad absorption lines (mini-BALs) in six quasars for a period of 4-12 years (1-3.5 years in the quasar rest-frame). We present the observational data and the conclusions that follow immediately from them, as a prelude to a more detailed analysis. We found clear variability in the equivalent widths (EWs) of the mini-BAL systems but no easily discernible changes in their profiles. We did not detect any variability in the NAL systems nor in narrow components that are often located at the center of mini-BAL profiles. Variations in mini-BAL EWs are larger at longer time intervals, reminiscent of the trend seen in variable broad absorption lines. If we assume that the observed variations result from changes in the ionization state of the mini-BAL gas, we infer lower limits to the gas density $sim$ 10$^3$-10$^5$ cm$^{-3}$ and upper limits on the distance of the absorbers from the central engine of order a few kpc. Motivated by the observed variability properties, we suggest that mini-BALs can vary because of fluctuations of the ionizing continuum or changes in partial coverage while NALs can vary primarily because of changes in partial coverage.
Aims. We have searched for temporal variations of narrow absorption lines in high resolution quasar spectra. A sample of 5 distant sources have been assembled, for which 2 spectra - VLT/UVES or Keck/HIRES - taken several years apart are available. Methods. We first investigate under which conditions variations in absorption line profiles can be detected reliably from high resolution spectra, and discuss the implications of changes in terms of small-scale structure within the intervening gas or intrinsic origin. The targets selected allow us to investigate the time behavior of a broad variety of absorption line systems, sampling diverse environments: the vicinity of active nuclei, galaxy halos, molecular-rich galaxy disks associated with damped Lya systems, as well as neutral gas within our own Galaxy. Results. Absorption lines from MgII, FeII or proxy species with lines of lower opacity tracing the same kind of gas appear to be remarkably stable (1 sigma upper limits as low as 10 % for some components on scales in the range 10 - 100 au), even for systems at z_abs ~ z_e. Marginal variations are observed for MgII lines toward PKS 1229-021 at z_abs = 0.83032; however, we detect no systems displaying changes as large as those reported in low resolution SDSS spectra. In neutral or diffuse molecular media, clear changes are seen for Galactic NaI lines toward PKS 1229-02 (decrease of N by a factor of four for one of the five components over 9.7 yr), corresponding to structure at a scale of about 35 au, in good agreement with known properties of the Galactic interstellar medium. Tentative variations are detected for H2 J=3 lines toward FBQS J2340-0053 at z_abs =2.05454 (~35% change in column density), suggesting the existence of structure at the 10 au-scale for this warm gas. A marginal change is also seen in CI from another velocity component (~70% variation in N(CI)).
The absorption lines observed in quasar spectra have given us a detailed picture of the intergalactic medium and the metal abundance and kinematics of high redshift galaxies. In this review, we present an introduction to the field, starting with the techniques used for interpreting absorption line spectra. We then survey the observational and theoretical development of our understanding of the Lyman-alpha forest, the metal absorbers, and the damped Ly-alpha absorbers. We conclude with a discussion of some of the remaining outstanding issues, and prospects for the future.
In this work, we present new calculations of the observables associated with synthetic metal and HI absorption lines in the spectra of high redshift quasars, inspired by questions and limitations raised in work with a uniform Haardt-Madau 2012 ultraviolet background (UVB). We introduce variations at $z sim$ 6 to the UVB and HI self--shielding and explore the sensitivity of the absorption features to modifications of the hardness of the UVB. We find that observed SiIV and low ionization states (e.g. CII, SiII, OI) are well represented by a soft UV ionizing field at $z =$ 6 but, this same prescription, fails to reproduce the statistical properties of the observed ion CIV absorber population. Therefore, we recommend a moderate reduction of the UVB at this redshift, an emissivity change between the UVB models that lies in between the Haardt-Madau 2012 emissivity J$_{ u}$ and one with a dex below J$_{ u} -$ 1 at 1 Ryd. On the other hand, variations in the HI self--shielding (SSh) prescription leave a non--negligible imprint in the calculated HI column density distribution function (CDDF) at $z =$ 4 and the comoving mass density of neutral Hydrogen (and the associated calculation with damped Lyman--$alpha$ absorber systems) at 4 $< z <$ 6. We conclude that small variations in the UVB and HI SSh at $z sim$ 6 play an important role in improving the estimation of metal ions and HI statistics at this redshift.
We report on the highly variable SiIV and CIV broad absorption lines in SDSS J113831.4+351725.2 across four observational epochs. Using the SiIV doublet components, we find that the blue component is usually saturated and non-black, with the ratio of optical depths between the two components rarely being 2:1. This indicates that these absorbers do not fully cover the line-of-sight and thus a simple apparent optical depth model is insufficient when measuring the true opacity of the absorbers. Tests with inhomogeneous (power-law) and pure-partial coverage (step-function) models of the absorbing SiIV optical depth predict the most un-blended doublets component profiles equally well. However, when testing with Gaussian-fitted doublet components to all SiIV absorbers and averaging the total absorption predicted in each doublet, the upper limit of the power law index is mostly unconstrained. This leads us to favour pure partial coverage as a more accurate measure of the true optical depth than the inhomogeneous power law model. The pure-partial coverage model indicates no significant change in covering fraction across the epochs, with changes in the incident ionizing flux on the absorbing gas instead being favoured as the variability mechanism. This is supported by (a) the coordinated behaviour of the absorption troughs, (b) the behaviour of the continuum at the blue end of the spectrum and (c) the consistency of photoionization simulations of ionic column density dependencies on ionization parameter with the observed variations. Evidence from the simulations together with the CIV absorption profile indicates that the absorber lies outside the broad line region, though the precise distance and kinetic luminosity are not well constrained.
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