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Precision Cosmology with. Another classic high-z QSO with Lyman- a and metal lines. Rauch, Sargent & Barlow. Mean Flux and Continuum Fitting of the z > 2 Lyman- a Forest. Probability of Transmission: <F> = <Observed Flux / QSO Continuum>
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Precision Cosmology with LBL Summer Program 2005
Another classic high-z QSO with Lyman-a and metal lines Rauch, Sargent & Barlow LBL Summer Program 2005
Mean Flux and Continuum Fitting of the z > 2 Lyman-a Forest • Probability of Transmission: <F> = <Observed Flux / QSO Continuum> • Probability of Scattering from Lyman-a: DA = 1 - <F> between 1070-1150 • Long history of measurements, first direct observable of the forest • Modern measurements use 2 techniques: • Direct Continuum Fitting (DCF) to high resolution, high S/N echelle spectra. • e.g. Kirkman et al. 2005, Kim et al. 2001, McDonald et al. 2000 • Requires exhaustive treatment of individual spectra • Currently limited to 10s of lines of sight per redshift bin • Errors in DA at the 5% level • Continuum Extrapolation (CE) to large samples of lower resolution samples • E.g. Press, Rybiki, Schneider; Bernardi et al. 2003 • Requires well fluxed QSO samples, and a motivated model of continuum. • Up to 100s of lines of sight, potential precision of 1% LBL Summer Program 2005
Bernardi et al 2003 LBL Summer Program 2005
All measurements of <F>, DA depend on comparison to simulations… • So let’s use the distribution of flux (PDF) as well as the mean, as suggested by Lidz. Et al 2005 • Advantages: • Does not require absolute continuum determination • Trend removal (Croft et al. 98, Hui et al. 01) can be done on QSO by QSO basis. One does not require composite, nor complicated PCA procedures with large training samples. • Disadvantages: • The observed PDF depends sensitvely to resolution and noise • The PDF bins are highly correlated when normalized by trend removal. • A correct model of the forest should agree with both the mean flux as well as the PDF LBL Summer Program 2005
Lidz et al. 2005 LBL Summer Program 2005
K K LBL Summer Program 2005
Some possible questions for discussion: • Can QSO lines of sight yield “unbiased” estimates of <F>? • Do high column systems contribute excess metals beyond the average dN/dz? • Is it possible to reconcile the current set of available measurements? • Metals and high column systems are significant contributions • What is the ultimate goal in precision for DA: is 1% attainable? • How should we combine constraints from high and low resolution samples? LBL Summer Program 2005
Correlation function of SDSS LRGs Eisenstein et al. 2005 LBL Summer Program 2005
Dv z LBL Summer Program 2005
First attempt with DR3 QSOs, z > 2.7 LBL Summer Program 2005
S2 x Comoving distance (Mpc/h) LBL Summer Program 2005
Jackknife estimates of 1-sigma error LBL Summer Program 2005
From Rupert’s simulation, 1000 LOS LBL Summer Program 2005
2d image of flux correlation in velocity/redshift z 100 +- 5 Mpc/h 4.0 3.0 2.3 0 2200 10,000 17,000 Velocity separation (km/s) LBL Summer Program 2005