On the importance of high redshift intergalactic voids

Abstract

We investigate the properties of one--dimensional flux ``voids'' (connected regions in the flux distribution above the mean flux level) by comparing hydrodynamical simulations of large cosmological volumes with a set of observed high--resolution spectra at z ~ 2. After addressing the effects of box size and resolution, we study how the void distribution changes when the most significant cosmological and astrophysical parameters are varied. We find that the void distribution in the flux is in excellent agreement with predictions of the standard LCDM cosmology, which also fits other flux statistics remarkably well. We then model the relation between flux voids and the corresponding one--dimensional gas density field along the line--of--sight and make a preliminary attempt to connect the one--dimensional properties of the gas density field to the three--dimensional dark matter distribution at the same redshift. This provides a framework that allows statistical interpretations of the void population at high redshift using observed quasar spectra, and eventually it will enable linking the void properties of the high--redshift universe with those at lower redshifts, which are better known.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Minor revisions. 11 pages and 10 figures. High resolution version available at http://adlibitum.oat.ts.astro.it/viel/VOIDS/voids.ps

References in corpus (48)

• The cosmological simulation code GADGET-2
• Radiative Transfer in a Clumpy Universe: II. The Utraviolet Extragalactic Background
• A hierarchy of voids: Much ado about nothing
• The Observed Probability Distribution Function, Power Spectrum, and Correlation Function of the Transmitted Flux in the Lyman-alpha Forest
• Model-independent insights into the nature of the Lyman-alpha forest and the distribution of matter in the universe
• The Void Phenomenon
• Evolution of Structure in the Intergalactic Medium and the Nature of the Ly-alpha Forest
• Dwarf galaxies in voids: Suppressing star formation with photo-heating
• Inferring the dark matter power spectrum from the Lyman-alpha forest in high-resolution QSO absorption spectra
• Voids in the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey
• How cold is cold dark matter? Small scales constraints from the flux power spectrum of the high-redshift Lyman-alpha forest
• The Lyman-alpha forest opacity and the metagalactic hydrogen ionization rate at z~2-4
• The structure of voids
• Photometric Properties of Void Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Extragalactic Radio Sources and the WMAP Cold Spot
• The Luminosity Function of Void Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Spectroscopic Properties of Void Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Voids in a $\Lambda$CDM Universe
• An improved measurement of the flux distribution of the Ly-alpha forest in QSO absorption spectra: the effect of continuum fitting, metal contamination and noise properties
• Spatial and Dynamical Properties of Voids in a LCDM Universe
• The power spectrum of the flux distribution in the Lyman-alpha forest of a Large sample of UVES QSO Absorption Spectra (LUQAS)
• The Properties of Galaxies in Voids
• Galaxy Voids in Cold Dark Matter Universes
• The Evidence of Absence: Galaxy Voids in the Excursion Set Formalism
• The Lyman-alpha forest and WMAP year three
• Shapes and Sizes of Voids in the LCDM Universe: Excursion Set Approach
• Statistics of Voids in the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey
• Voids in the Simulated Local Universe
• Voids in the 2dFGRS and LCDM simulations: spatial and dynamical properties
• The orientation of galaxy dark matter haloes around cosmic voids
• Simulating Voids
• Void Ellipticity Distribution as a Probe of Cosmology
• Minivoids in the Local Volume
• A Concordance Model of the Lyman-alpha Forest at z = 1.95
• Spatial fluctuations in the spectral shape of the UV background at 2<z<3 and the reionization of helium
• A combined analysis of 3D Weak Lensing, Lyman-alpha forest and WMAP year three data
• Formation of voids in the Universe within the Lemaitre-Tolman model
• The Mass Function of Void Galaxies in the SDSS Data Release 2
• Tomography of the intergalactic medium with Ly-alpha forests in close QSO pairs
• Modelling the IGM and the Lyalpha forest at high redshift from the dark matter distribution
• The bispectrum of the Lyman-alpha forest at z~2-2.4 from a Large sample of UVES QSO Absorption Spectra (LUQAS)
• Expansion and Collapse in the Cosmic Web
• The Local Lyman-Alpha Forest: Absorbers in Galaxy Voids
• Rotation of Cosmic Voids and Void-Spin Statistics
• Void Scaling and Void Profiles in CDM Models
• On an Analytical Framework for Voids: Their abundances, density profiles and local mass functions
• Constraints on the Abundance of Highly Ionized Proto-Cluster Regions from the Absence of Large Voids in the Lyman Alpha Forest
• High-redshift voids in the excursion set formalism

Cited by in corpus (21)

• Cosmic Voids in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7
• Voids in massive neutrino cosmologies
• Massive Neutrinos Leave Fingerprints on Cosmic Voids
• A robust public catalogue of voids and superclusters in the SDSS Data Release 7 galaxy surveys
• The sizes of mini-voids in the local universe: an argument in favor of a warm dark matter model?
• The mass density field in simulated non-Gaussian scenarios
• Primordial non-Gaussianities in the Intergalactic Medium
• Dark matter voids in the SDSS galaxy survey
• Simulated void galaxies in the standard cold dark matter model
• A Detection of $z$~2.3 Cosmic Voids from 3D Lyman-$\alpha$ Forest Tomography in the COSMOS Field
• Cosmological exploitation of cosmic void statistics - New numerical tools in the CosmoBolognaLib to extract cosmological constraints from the void size function
• A tomographic map of the large-scale matter distribution using the eBOSS Stripe 82 Ly-$\alpha$ forest
• Voids in Lyα Forest Tomographic Maps
• Neutrino Signatures on the High Transmission Regions of the Lyman-alpha Forest
• The statistics of voids as a tool to constrain cosmological parameters: sigma_8 and Omega_m h
• High resolution spectroscopy of the three dimensional cosmic web with close QSO groups
• The evolution of a pre-heated Intergalactic Medium
• New Statistical Perspective to The Cosmic Void Distribution
• Merging Tree Algorithm of Growing Voids in Self Similar and CDM Models
• Extended Void Merging Tree Algorithm for Self-Similar Models
• Cosmic voids and BAO with relative baryon-CDM perturbations