The baryon density at z=0.9-1.9 - Tracing the warm-hot intergalactic medium with broad Lyman alpha absorption

Abstract

We present an analysis of the Lyman alpha forests of five quasar spectra in the near UV. Properties of the intergalactic medium (IGM) at an intermediate redshift interval (0.9 < z < 1.9) are studied. The amount of baryons in the diffuse photoionised IGM and the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) are traced to get constraints on the redshift evolution of the different phases of the intergalactic gas. The baryon density of the diffuse IGM is determined with photoionisation calculations under the assumption of local hydrostatic equilibrium. We assume that the gas is ionised by a metagalactic background radiation with a Haardt & Madau (2001) spectrum. The WHIM is traced with broad Lyman alpha (BLA) absorption. The properties of a number of BLA detections are studied. Under the assumption of collisional ionisation equilibrium a lower limit to the baryon density could be estimated. It is found that the diffuse photoionised IGM contains at least 25% of the total baryonic matter at redshifts 1 < z < 2. For the WHIM a lower limit of 2.4% could be determined. Furthermore the data indicates that the intergalactic gas is in a state of evolution at z=1.5. We confirm that a considerable part of the WHIM is created between z=1 and z=2.

arXiv comment6 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in A&A

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• A possible Chandra and Hubble Space Telescope detection of extragalactic WHIM towards PG 1116+215
• Probing the Warm-Hot Circumgalactic Medium with broad OVI and X-rays
• Hot gas in galaxy halos traced by coronal broad Lyman alpha absorbers
• Role of ionizing background on the non-thermal broadening inferred for the aligned absorbers