Inferring the dark matter power spectrum from the Lyman α forest in high-resolution QSO absorption spectra

By M. Viel, M. Haehnelt, Volker Springel. 2004

263 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We use the LUQAS sample, a set of 27 high-resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio quasi-stellar object (QSO) absorption spectra at a median redshift of z = 2.25, and the data from Croft et al. at a median redshift of z = 2.72, together with a large suite of high-resolution large box-size hydrodynamical simulations, to estimate the linear dark matter power spectrum on scales 0.003 < k < 0.03 s km -1 . Our reanalysis of the Croft et al. data agrees well with their results if we assume the same mean optical depth and gas temperature-density relation. The inferred linear dark matter power spectrum at z = 2.72 also agrees with that inferred from LUQAS at lower redshift if we assume that the increase of the amplitude is due to gravitational growth between these redshifts. We further argue that the smaller mean optical depth measured from high-resolution spectra is more accurate than the larger value obtained from low-resolution spectra by Press et al. which Croft et al. used. For the smaller optical depth we obtain a 20 per cent higher value for the rms fluctuation amplitude of the matter density. By combining the amplitude of the matter power spectrum inferred from the Lya forest with the amplitude on large scales inferred from measurements of the CMB we obtain constraints on the primordial spectral index n and the normalization σ 8 . For values of the mean optical depth favoured by high-resolution spectra, the inferred linear power spectrum is consistent with a ACDM model with a scale-free (n = 1) primordial power spectrum.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/821bd9934e817b0f9a0b95ee191e584f4824ece0

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Citations in the corpus

The effect of neutrinos on the matter distribution as probed by the intergalactic medium (2010, background): “As in our previous simulations [6] the heating rates have been multiplied by a factor ∼ 3 to achieve temperatures of the IGM at mean density at z = 2− 4 which are in better agreement with observational data.”
The effects of galaxy formation on the matter power spectrum: a challenge for precision cosmology (2011, background): “…most accurate measurements of the matter power spectrum come from studies of weak, gravitational lensing (e.g. Massey et al. 2007; Fu et al. 2008; Schrabback et al. 2010), galaxy clustering (e.g. Cole et al. 2005; Reid et al. 2010) and the Lyα forest (e.g. Viel et al. 2004; McDonald et al. 2006).”
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New Constraints on the free-streaming of warm dark matter from intermediate and small scale Lyman-$\alpha$ forest data (2017, background): “At present, constraints on the matter power spectrum are either derived from moderate size samples with tens of high-resolution, high signal-to-noise spectra (VLT, HIRES/KECK, [7, 9, 12]) or large samples with thousands of low-resolution, low signal-to-noise spectra (SDSS-II, SDSS-III/BOSS, [13, 18,”
An improved measurement of the flux distribution of the Lyα forest in QSO absorption spectra: the effect of continuum fitting, metal contamination and noise properties (2007, background): “This is mainly due to the occurrence of strong absorption systems which are rare in individual spectra (Viel et al. 2004a).”
A lower bound on the mass of dark matter particles (2008, background): “Therefore, various simplifying approximations have to be realized [30, 33–39].”
Cosmic ray feedback in hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation (2006, unknown): “These effects of CRs on the Ly-α therefore lie in a regime that is normally not used to constrain the matter power spectrum with Lyman-α forest data, at least in conservative treatments that focus on k 0.03 km−1s (Viel et al., 2004).”
The EAGLE project: Simulating the evolution and assembly of galaxies and their environments (2014, background): “The agreement is sufficiently good that comparisons between theory and observation can be used to measure cosmological and physical parameters (e.g. Croft et al. 1998; Schaye et al. 2000; Viel et al. 2004; McDonald et al. 2005).”
COSMOS: Three-dimensional Weak Lensing and the Growth of Structure (2007, background): “…of 8 ¼ 0:85 or slightly greater have recently been published by McCarthy et al. (2007) from observations of the gas mass fraction in X-ray-selected clusters; Li et al. (2006), by counting the number of observed giant arcs; and Viel et al. (2004) and Seljak et al. (2006) with Ly forest data.”
The Relation between Quasar and Merging Galaxy Luminosity Functions and the Merger-driven Star Formation History of the Universe (2006, unknown): “…1996; Katz et al. 1996a, 1996b; Navarro et al. 1996; Croft et al. 1998, 1999, 2002; Davé et al. 1999; McDonald et al. 2000, 2006; Hui et al. 2001; Viel et al. 2003, 2004) and semianalytic models (e.g., Kauffmann & Haehnelt 2000; Cole et al. 2000; Somerville et al. 2001, 2004b; Volonteri et al.…”
Cosmological and astrophysical parameters from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey flux power spectrum and hydrodynamical simulations of the Lyman α forest (2005, methodology): “Viel et al. (2004) improved instead the effective bias method developed by C02.”
Observational probes of cosmic acceleration (2012, background): “However, even after marginalizing over these parameters there is enough information in the clustering statistics of the flux F to constrain the shape and amplitude of the matter power spectrum (e.g., Croft et al. 2002; Viel et al. 2004; McDonald et al. 2006).”