ASGC Statewide Symposium April 18, 2009

ASGC Statewide Symposium April 18, 2009

Tracing the Intergalactic Medium: QSO Absorption Spectra and Galaxy Redshifts

Allison Strom1, Jill Bechtold1, Buell Jannuzi21University of Arizona, 2National Optical Astronomy Observatory

ASGC Statewide Symposium April 18, 2009

Introduction

• Gaseous and luminous matter interact and affect formation of large scale structure throughout history of universe

• Broad, “brute force” approach: take census of everything there

• Detection and observation– Stars directly observed

– Gas indirectly observed, requires external light source

70 Mpc

Z = 6

Z = 2

Z = 0

Evolution of galaxies, stars, galaxy clusters <==> dark matter environment

V. Springel

Univ. Colorado, Boulder

ASGC Statewide Symposium April 18, 2009

Womble, Sargent, and Lyons 1996

Bahcall, Jannuzi, Schneider, Hartig, Bohlin, & Junkkarinen 1991

Q1422+2309z = 3.63

Keck I and HIRES

3C 273z = 0.158

HST and FOS

ASGC Statewide Symposium April 18, 2009

Q0107-025

Morris and Jannuzi, 2006

ASGC Statewide Symposium April 18, 2009

Deimos and Galaxy Redshifts

Obj. 30341Slit 065z = 0.20432

ASGC Statewide Symposium April 18, 2009

Deimos and Galaxy Redshifts

Obj. 29409Slit 044z = 0.71960

ASGC Statewide Symposium April 18, 2009

Deimos and Galaxy Redshifts

Obj. 33050Slit 054z = 0.89900

ASGC Statewide Symposium April 18, 2009

Deimos and Galaxy Redshifts

Obj. 24584Slit 021z = 0.65294

N. Crighton

ASGC Statewide Symposium April 18, 2009

Looking Forward and Looking Back

• Identify serendipitous observations

• Catalog Ly absorption lines– Redshift

– Column density

• Correlate absorption features and absorbers– Two-point correlation function

– “Nearest neighbor” approximation

Special thanks to Michael Cooper and Neil Crighton