Abstract
Determinations of the metallicity of the intergalactic medium using QSO absorption spectra have generally relied either on the fitting of metal and HI spectral lines, or on the statistical comparison of metal and HI optical depths on a pixel-by-pixel basis. I will discuss the second method, describing how numerical cosmological simulations can be used to test and improve the method, and interpret the results. The same simulations can be used to “invert” observed spectra into an estimate of the metallicity vs. density of the IGM, which I will demonstrate.
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© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Aguirre, A., Schaye, J., Theuns, T. (2003). Recovering Intergalactic Metallicity Using Pixel Optical Depths. In: Rosenberg, J.L., Putman, M.E. (eds) The IGM/Galaxy Connection. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 281. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0115-1_44
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0115-1_44
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