← Search

Table · dataset · 2018

HeII photoionization rates of quasars

Listed in IVOA Registry (Virtual Observatory)

The HeII transverse proximity effect-enhanced HeII Ly{alpha} transmission in a background sightline caused by the ionizing radiation of a foreground quasar-offers a unique opportunity to probe the morphology of quasar-driven HeII reionization.

Description

We conduct a comprehensive spectroscopic survey to find z~3 quasars in the foreground of 22 background quasar sightlines with Hubble Space Telescope/COS HeII Ly{alpha} transmission spectra.

With our two-tiered survey strategy, consisting of a deep pencil-beam survey and a shallow wide-field survey, we discover 131 new quasars, which we complement with known SDSS/BOSS quasars in our fields. Using a restricted sample of 66 foreground quasars with inferred HeII photoionization rates greater than the expected UV background at these redshifts ({Gamma}_QSO_^HeII^>5x10^-16^s^-1^) we perform the first statistical analysis of the HeII transverse proximity effect.

Read the rest (2 more)

Our results show qualitative evidence for a large object-to-object variance: among the four foreground quasars with the highest {Gamma}_QSO_^HeII^ only one (previously known) quasar is associated with a significant HeII transmission spike. We perform a stacking analysis to average down these fluctuations, and detect an excess in the average HeII transmission near the foreground quasars at 3{sigma} significance. This statistical evidence for the transverse proximity effect is corroborated by a clear dependence of the signal strength on {Gamma}_QSO_^HeII^.

Our detection places a purely geometrical lower limit on the quasar lifetime of t_Q_>25Myr. Improved modeling would additionally constrain quasar obscuration and the mean free path of HeII-ionizing photons.

Links

Where it is published

Documentation and papers

Catalogue records · 2

Topics

Stated by source
Optical · Uv
Inferred from text
Astronomical sciences 68%
Provenance · 1 source records, 10 field assertions
SourceKeyLast seenRaw
IVOA Registry (Virtual Observatory)ivo://cds.vizier/j/apj/847/8114 d agoJSON v1
FieldAssertionExtractorEvidence
access_levelsource · IVOA Registryconnector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0
concepts[field].anzsrc:group:5101enrichment · IVOA Registrytaxonomy-embedding@1.1.0title+keywords+description (68%)
concepts[field].local:field:astronomymapping · IVOA Registryconnector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0
concepts[modality].ivoa_waveband:opticalsource · IVOA Registryconnector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0
concepts[modality].ivoa_waveband:uvsource · IVOA Registryconnector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0
descriptionsource · IVOA Registryconnector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0rr.resource.res_description
license_textsource · IVOA Registryconnector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0
publication_datesource · IVOA Registryconnector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0
titlesource · IVOA Registryconnector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0rr.resource.res_title
updated_datesource · IVOA Registryconnector:ivoa_registry@1.0.0