Estimation of the temperature-density relation in the intergalactic medium at $\mathbf{z}\sim 2-4$ via Ly$\alpha$ forest

Abstract

Quasar spectra provide a unique opportunity to investigate the intergalactic medium at high redshifts. The spectral analysis of the Ly$\alpha$ forest allows us to constrain the effective equation of state of the intergalactic medium and its changes during the evolution of the Universe. Based on the Voigt profile fitting of Ly$\alpha$ forest lines in 50 high-resolution QSO spectra obtained at Keck telescope we present new measurements of the power-law index $\gamma$ of temperature-density relation in IGM for six redshift bins in the range $z=1.6-3.7$. We find that the IGM state is close to isothermal ($\gamma \approx 1$) at $z\sim 3$ which may indicate that HeII reionization occurred at this redshift.

arXiv comment6 pages, 2 figures, 1 table; submitted to the International Conference PhysicA.SPb/2018, Saint Petersburg, Russia, October 23-25, 2018

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• Thermal state of the intergalactic medium at $z\sim 2-4$
• A Novel Statistical Method for Measuring the Temperature-Density Relation in the IGM Using the $b$-$N_{\text{HI}}$ Distribution of Absorbers in the Ly$\alpha$ Forest
• The thermal history of the intergalactic medium at $3.9\le z\le 4.3$