An improved model for the effect of correlated Si-III absorption on the one-dimensional Lyman-$\alpha$ forest power spectrum

Abstract

We present an analysis of Si III absorption and its effect on the 1D Ly$\alpha$ forest power spectrum using the Sherwood-Relics hydrodynamical simulation suite. In addition to oscillations from the Ly$\alpha$--Si III cross correlation that are damped toward smaller scales, we find an enhancement in small-scale power that has been ignored in previous studies. We therefore develop a new analytical fitting function that captures two critical effects that have previously been neglected: distinct Ly$\alpha$ and Si III line profiles, and a variable ratio for coeval Ly$\alpha$ and Si III optical depths. In contrast to earlier work, we also predict amplitudes for the Si III power spectrum and Ly$\alpha$--Si III cross power spectrum that decrease toward lower redshift due to the hardening metagalactic UV background spectrum at $z\lesssim 3.5$. The fitting function is validated by comparison against multiple simulated datasets at redshifts $2.2\le z\le 5.0$ and wavenumbers $k<0.2\mathrm{s}\mathrm{k}{\mathrm{m}}^{-1}$. Our model has little effect on existing warm dark matter constraints from the Ly$\alpha$ forest when adopting a physically motivated prior on the silicon abundance. It will, however, be an essential consideration for future, high precision Ly$\alpha$ forest power spectrum measurements.

16 pages, 12 figures, accepted to MNRAS. The accepted version now includes oscillation damping at large scales

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