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Register a new userIntensity mapping with SDSS/BOSS Lyman-alpha emission, quasars and their Lyman-alpha forest
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Rupert A.C. Croft
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We investigate the large-scale structure of Lyman-alpha emission intensity in the Universe at redshifts z=2-3.5 using cross-correlation techniques. Our Lya emission samples are spectra of BOSS Luminous Red Galaxies from Data Release 12 with the best fit model galaxies subtracted. We cross-correlate the residual flux in these spectra with BOSS quasars, and detect a positive signal on scales 1-15 Mpc/h. We identify and remove a source of contamination not previously accounted for, due to the effects of quasar clustering on cross-fibre light. Corrected, our quasar-Lya emission cross-correlation is 50 % lower than that seen by Croft et al. for DR10, but still significant. Because only 3% of space is within 15 Mpc/h of a quasar, the result does not fully explore the global large-scale structure of Lya emission. To do this, we cross-correlate with the Lya forest. We find no signal in this case. The 95% upper limit on the global Lya mean surface brightness from Lya emission-Lya forest cross-correlation is mu < 1.2x10^-22 erg/s/cm^2/A/arcsec^2 This null result rules out the scenario where the observed quasar-Lya emission cross-correlation is primarily due to the large scale structure of star forming galaxies, Taken in combination, our results suggest that Lya emitting galaxies contribute, but quasars dominate within 15 Mpc/h. A simple model for Lya emission from quasars based on hydrodynamic simulations reproduces both the observed forest-Lya emission and quasar-Lya emission signals. The latter is also consistent with extrapolation of observations of fluorescent emission from smaller scales r < 1 Mpc.
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(Abridged) We detect the large-scale structure of Lya emission in the Universe at redshifts z=2-3.5 by measuring the cross-correlation of Lya surface brightness with quasars in SDSS/BOSS. We use a million spectra targeting Luminous Red Galaxies at z<0.8, after subtracting a best fit model galaxy spectrum from each one, as an estimate of the high-redshift Lya surface brightness. The quasar-Lya emission cross-correlation we detect has a shape consistent with a LambdaCDM model with Omega_M =0.30^+0.10-0.07. The predicted amplitude of this cross-correlation is proportional to the product of the mean Lya surface brightness, <mu_alpha>, the amplitude of mass fluctuations, and the quasar and Lya emission bias factors. Using known values, we infer <mu_alpha>(b_alpha/3) = (3.9 +/- 0.9) x 10^-21 erg/s cm^-2 A^-1 arcsec^-2, where b_alpha is the Lya emission bias factor. If the dominant sources of Lya emission are star forming galaxies, we infer rho_SFR = (0.28 +/- 0.07) (3/b_alpha) /yr/Mpc^3 at z=2-3.5. For b_alpha=3, this value is a factor of 21-35 above previous estimates from individually detected Lya emitters, although consistent with the total rho_SFR derived from dust-corrected, continuum UV surveys. 97% of the Lya emission in the Universe at these redshifts is therefore undetected in previous surveys of Lya emitters. Our measurement is much greater than seen from stacking analyses of faint halos surrounding previously detected Lya emitters, but we speculate that it arises from similar Lya halos surrounding all luminous star-forming galaxies. We also detect redshift space anisotropy of the quasar-Lya emission cross-correlation, finding evidence at the 3.0 sigma level that it is radially elongated, consistent with distortions caused by radiative-transfer effects (Zheng et al. (2011)). Our measurements represent the first application of the intensity mapping technique to optical observations.
We present the BOSS Lyman-alpha (Lya) Forest Sample from SDSS Data Release 9, comprising 54,468 quasar spectra with zqso > 2.15 suitable for Lya forest analysis. This data set probes the intergalactic medium with absorption redshifts 2.0 < z_alpha < 5.7 over an area of 3275 square degrees, and encompasses an approximate comoving volume of 20 h^-3 Gpc^3. With each spectrum, we have included several products designed to aid in Lya forest analysis: improved sky masks that flag pixels where data may be unreliable, corrections for known biases in the pipeline estimated noise, masks for the cores of damped Lya systems and corrections for their wings, and estimates of the unabsorbed continua so that the observed flux can be converted to a fractional transmission. The continua are derived using a principal component fit to the quasar spectrum redwards of restframe Lya (lambda > 1216 Ang), extrapolated into the forest region and normalized by a linear function to fit the expected evolution of the Lya forest mean-flux. The estimated continuum errors are ~5% rms. We also discuss possible systematics arising from uncertain spectrophotometry and artifacts in the flux calibration; global corrections for the latter are provided. Our sample provides a convenient starting point for users to analyze clustering in BOSS Lya forest data, and it provides a fiducial data set that can be used to compare results from different analyses of baryon acoustic oscillations in the Lya forest. The full data set is available from the SDSS-III DR9 web site.
The 21-cm and Lyman Alpha lines are the dominant line-emission spectral features at opposite ends of the spectrum of hydrogen. Each line can be used to create three dimensional intensity maps of large scale structure. The sky brightness at low redshift due to Lyman Alpha emission is estimated to be 0.4 Jy/Steradian, which is brighter than the zodiacal light foreground.
The Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) has collected more than 150,000 $2.1 leq z leq 3.5$ quasar spectra since 2009. Using this unprecedented sample, we create a composite spectrum in the rest-frame of 102,150 quasar spectra from 800 AA to 3300 AA at a signal-to-noise ratio close to 1000 per pixel ($Delta v$ of 69 km~s$^{-1}$). Included in this analysis is a correction to account for flux calibration residuals in the BOSS spectrophotometry. We determine the spectral index as a function of redshift of the full sample, warp the composite spectrum to match the median spectral index, and compare the resulting spectrum to SDSS photometry used in target selection. The quasar composite matches the color of the quasar population to within 0.02 magnitudes in $g-r$, 0.03 magnitudes in $r-i$, and 0.01 magnitudes in $i-z$ over the redshift range $2.2<z<2.6$. The composite spectrum deviates from the imaging photometry by 0.05 magnitudes around $z = 2.7$, likely due to differences in target selection as the quasar colors become similar to the stellar locus at this redshift. Finally, we characterize the line features in the high signal-to-noise composite and identify nine faint lines not found in the previous composite spectrum from SDSS.
We present the results of a high-spatial-resolution study of the line emission in a sample of z=3.1 Lyman-Alpha-Emitting Galaxies (LAEs) in the Extended Chandra Deep Field-South. Of the eight objects with coverage in our HST/WFPC2 narrow-band imaging, two have clear detections and an additional two are barely detected (~2-sigma). The clear detections are within ~0.5 kpc of the centroid of the corresponding rest-UV continuum source, suggesting that the line-emitting gas and young stars in LAEs are spatially coincident. The brightest object exhibits extended emission with a half-light radius of ~1.5 kpc, but a stack of the remaining LAE surface brightness profiles is consistent with the WFPC2 point spread function. This suggests that the Lyman Alpha emission in these objects originates from a compact (<~2 kpc) region and cannot be significantly more extended than the far-UV continuum emission (<~1 kpc). Comparing our WFPC2 photometry to previous ground-based measurements of their monochromatic fluxes, we find at 95% (99.7%) confidence that we cannot be missing more than 22% (32%) of the Lyman Alpha emission.
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