Confronting Cosmological Simulations with Observations of Intergalactic Metals
View/ Open
Author
Aguirre, Anthony
Schaye, Joop
Hernquist, Lars
Kay, Scott
Springel, Volker
Theuns, Tom
Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1086/428498Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Aguirre, Anthony, Joop Schaye, Lars Hernquist, Scott Kay, Volker Springel, and Tom Theuns. 2005. “Confronting Cosmological Simulations with Observations of Intergalactic Metals.” The Astrophysical Journal 620 (1): L13–17. https://doi.org/10.1086/428498.Abstract
Using the statistics of pixel optical depths, we compare H i, C iv, and C iii absorption in a set of six high- quality z similar to 3-4 different state- of- the- art cosmological simulations that include galactic outflows. We find that the simulations predict far too little C iv absorption, unless the UV background is extremely soft, and always predict far too small C iii/ C iv ratios. We note, however, that much of the enriched gas is in a phase (T similar to 10(5) - 10(7) K, rho/(rho) similar to 0.1-10, Z greater than or similar to 0.1 Z.) that should cool by metal line emission- which was not included in our simulations. When the effect of cooling is modeled, the predicted C iv absorption increases substantially, but the C iii/ C iv ratios are still far too small because the density of the enriched gas is too low. Finally, we find that the predicted metal distribution is much too inhomogeneous to reproduce the observed probability distribution of C iv absorption. These findings suggest that strong winds cannot fully explain the z less than or similar to 6 observed enrichment and that an additional ( perhaps higher z) contribution is required.Terms of Use
This article is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of-use#LAACitable link to this page
http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:41381594
Collections
- FAS Scholarly Articles [18176]
Contact administrator regarding this item (to report mistakes or request changes)