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In the context of the FLASHLIGHT survey, we obtained deep narrow band images of 15 $zsim2$ quasars with GMOS on Gemini-South in an effort to measure Ly$alpha$ emission from circum- and inter-galactic gas on scales of hundreds of kpc from the central quasar. We do not detect bright giant Ly$alpha$ nebulae (SB~10$^{-17}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ arcsec$^{-2}$ at distances >50 kpc) around any of our sources, although we routinely ($simeq47$%) detect smaller scale <50 kpc Ly$alpha$ emission at this SB level emerging from either the extended narrow emission line regions powered by the quasars or by star-formation in their host galaxies. We stack our 15 deep images to study the average extended Ly$alpha$ surface brightness profile around $zsim2$ quasars, carefully PSF-subtracting the unresolved emission component and paying close attention to sources of systematic error. Our analysis, which achieves an unprecedented depth, reveals a surface brightness of SB$_{rm Lyalpha}sim10^{-19}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ arcsec$^{-2}$ at $sim200$ kpc, with a $2.3sigma$ detection of Ly$alpha$ emission at SB$_{rm Lyalpha}=(5.5pm3.1)times10^{-20}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$ arcsec$^{-2}$ within an annulus spanning 50 kpc <R< 500 kpc from the quasars. Assuming this Ly$alpha$ emission is powered by fluorescence from highly ionized gas illuminated by the bright central quasar, we deduce an average volume density of $n_{rm H}=0.6times10^{-2}$ cm$^{-3}$ on these large scales. Our results are in broad agreement with the densities suggested by cosmological hydrodynamical simulations of massive ($Msimeq10^{12.5}M_odot$) quasar hosts, however they indicate that the typical quasars at these redshifts are surrounded by gas that is a factor of ~100 times less dense than the (~1 cm$^{-3}$) gas responsible for the giant bright Ly$alpha$ nebulae around quasars recently discovered by our group.
We present new results on the kinematics and spatial distribution of metal-enriched gas within 125 kpc (physical) of Lyman Break galaxies at redshifts z~2-3. In particular, we demonstrate how rest-UV galaxy spectra can be used to obtain key spatial a
With the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE), it is now possible to detect spatially extended Lyman alpha emission from individual faint (M_UV ~ -18) galaxies at redshifts, 3 < z < 6, tracing gas out to circum-galactic scales comparable to the d
Gas flows in and out of galaxies through their circumgalactic medium (CGM) are poorly constrained and direct observations of this faint, diffuse medium remain challenging. We use a sample of five $z$ $sim$ 1-2 galaxy counterparts to Damped Lyman-$alp
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
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