Properties of low z QSO absorption systems

This is the densest sample of ~1 degree separated QSOs observed spectroscopically with the Hubble Space Telescope to date. At the median redshift of the Ly{alpha} sample (z{=~}0.7), the QSO lines of sight are separated on transverse scales from about 15 to 200h^-1^Mpc (q_0_=0.5, H=100h.km/s/Mpc), allowing the three-dimensional clustering of the absorbers to be examined on those scales.

The Galactic poles are also regions where relatively deep and wide-field galaxy redshift surveys have taken place, so the distributions of galaxies and Ly{alpha} systems can be compared within the same volume of space. There are 545 total absorption lines detected in the complete sample from 13 QSOs. We identify 307 Ly{alpha} systems, of which 18 contain heavy-element lines.