The Lyman-alpha forest power spectrum from the XQ-100 Legacy Survey

Iršič, Vid; Viel, Matteo; Berg, Trystyn A. M.; D’Odorico, V.; Haehnelt, Martin G.; Cristiani, S.; Cupani, G.; Kim, Tae-Sun; López, Sebastián; Ellison, Sara L.; Becker, George D.; Christensen, L.; Denney, K. D.; Worseck, G.; Bolton, James S.

doi:10.1093/mnras/stw3372

Cited by 80 publications

(122 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Moving down in redshift, from measurements of the Lyman-α forest at z ∼ 3−6 [597,598,599,600,118], the CDM paradigm is known to be consistent with observations down to M halo ∼ 10 9 M [601, 118]. The Lyman-α forest is a series of Lyman-α absorption features from gas clouds backlit by quasars.…”

Section: Observationsmentioning

confidence: 74%

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Gravitational probes of dark matter physics

2018

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The nature of dark matter is one of the most pressing questions in physics. Yet all our present knowledge of the dark sector to date comes from its gravitational interactions with astrophysical systems. Moreover, astronomical results still have immense potential to constrain the particle properties of dark matter in the near future. We introduce a simple 2D parameter space which classifies models in terms of a particle physics interaction strength and a characteristic astrophysical scale on which new physics appears, in order to facilitate communication between the fields of particle physics and astronomy. We survey the known astrophysical anomalies that are suggestive of non-trivial dark matter particle physics, and present a theoretical and observational program for future astrophysical measurements that will shed light on the nature of dark matter.

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Section: Observationsmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…The Lyman-α forest is a series of Lyman-α absorption features from gas clouds backlit by quasars. Because gas density roughly traces the matter field, it can be used to constrain the matter power spectrum at moderate redshift, albeit with uncertainties related to the thermal history of the intergalactic medium (IGM) [118].…”

Section: Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gravitational probes of dark matter physics

2018

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“…Each simulated spectrum makes use of 1024 lines-of-sight. The observational measurements are obtained from data compiled by Kim et al (2004), Viel et al (2013), Iršič et al (2017b) and Walther et al (2018). The shaded regions encompass the reported uncertainty in observed mean transmission at that redshift, which translates to an uncertainty in the normalisation of the power spectra after rescaling.…”

Section: The 1d Flux Spectrummentioning

confidence: 99%

ETHOS – an Effective Theory of Structure Formation: detecting dark matter interactions through the Lyman-α forest

Bose

Vogelsberger

Zavala

et al. 2019

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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We perform a series of cosmological hydrodynamic simulations to investigate the effects of non-gravitational dark matter (DM) interactions on the intergalactic medium (IGM). In particular, we use the E framework Vogelsberger et al. 2016) to compare statistics of the Lyman-α forest in cold dark matter (CDM) with an alternative model in which the DM couples strongly with a relativistic species in the early universe. These models are characterised by a cutoff in the linear power spectrum, followed by a series of 'dark acoustic oscillations' (DAOs) on sub-dwarf scales. While the primordial cutoff delays the formation of the first galaxies, structure builds-up more rapidly in the interacting DM model compared to CDM. We show that although DAOs are quickly washed away in the non-linear clustering of DM at z 10, their signature can be imprinted prominently in the Lyman-α flux power spectrum at z > 5. On scales larger than the cutoff (k ∼ 0.08 s/km for the specific model considered here), the relative difference to CDM is reminiscent of a warm dark matter (WDM) model with a similar initial cutoff; however, the redshift evolution on smaller scales is distinctly different. The appearance and disappearance of DAOs in the Lyman-α flux spectrum provides a powerful way to distinguish interacting DM models from WDM and, indeed, variations in the thermal history of the IGM that may also induce a small-scale cutoff.

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“…Motivated by both cosmology and astrophysics, there has been a growing number of observed Lyman-α forest sightlines in the range 2 < z < 5 (Bechtold 1994;Croft et al 1998Croft et al , 1999Croft et al , 2002Rauch 1998;McDonald et al 2000McDonald et al , 2006Lidz et al 2010;Slosar et al 2011Slosar et al , 2013Eisenstein et al 2011;Dawson et al 2013;Font-Ribera et al 2014;Delubac et al 2015;du Mas des Bourboux et al 2017;Bautista et al 2017;Iršič et al 2017;Walther et al 2018b;Lee et al 2018). A range of statistical measures of the Lyman-α forest have been used; for cosmology purposes, the most common has been the 1D correlation function or power spectrum (that is, the power spectrum of individual skewers, treated as 1D random fields).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of inhomogeneous reionization on the Lyman-α forest

Montero-Camacho

Hirata

Martini

et al. 2019

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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The Lyman-α forest at high redshifts is a powerful probe of reionization. Modeling and observing this imprint comes with significant technical challenges: inhomogeneous reionization must be taken into account while simultaneously being able to resolve the web-like small-scale structure prior to reionization. In this work we quantify the impact of inhomogeneous reionization on the Lyman-α forest at lower redshifts (2 < z < 4), where upcoming surveys such as DESI will enable precision measurements of the flux power spectrum. We use both small box simulations capable of handling the small-scale structure of the Lyman-α forest and semi-numerical large box simulations capable of representing the effects of inhomogeneous reionization. We find that inhomogeneous reionization could produce a measurable effect on the Lyman-α forest power spectrum. The deviation in the 3D power spectrum at z obs = 4 and k = 0.14 Mpc −1 ranges from 19 -36%, with a larger effect for later reionization. The corrections decrease to 2.0 -4.1% by z obs = 2. The impact on the 1D power spectrum is smaller, and ranges from 3.3 -6.5% at z obs = 4 to 0.35 -0.75% at z obs = 2, values which are comparable to the statistical uncertainties in current and upcoming surveys. Furthermore, we study how can this systematic be constrained with the help of the quadrupole of the 21 cm power spectrum.1 More precisely, the optical depth is proportional to the neutral hydrogen density, which in turn depends on the density and temperature of the gas and the photoionization rate. This is then smeared by the Doppler width of the Lyman-α line.

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The Lyman-alpha forest power spectrum from the XQ-100 Legacy Survey

Cited by 80 publications

References 48 publications

Gravitational probes of dark matter physics

Gravitational probes of dark matter physics

ETHOS – an Effective Theory of Structure Formation: detecting dark matter interactions through the Lyman-α forest

Impact of inhomogeneous reionization on the Lyman-α forest

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