Evolution of Highly Ionized Gas Over Cosmic Time

Project Information

EHIG

Grant agreement ID: 23720

Start date 1 February 2006

End date 31 October 2006

Funded under

• Human resources and Mobility in the specific programme for research, technological development and demonstration "Structuring the European Research Area" under the Sixth Framework Programme 2002-2006

Total cost € 0,00

EU contribution € 154 816,00

Coordinated by

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE
France

Objective

I propose to study the properties of the highly ionized gas in the intergalactic medium using ground-based spectroscopy of high-redshift quasars. Observations of absorption lines of the highly ionized species O VI, N V, and C IV provide a way to measure th e properties of this highly ionized gas, which is thought to harbour a significant fraction of all baryons. Using data from the UVES spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope Chile (a European facility), I aim to look for evolution in the properties of O VI absorption systems with redshift. Specifically, I will: (a) determine whether highly ionized intergalactic absorbers contain multiple gaseous phases; (b) seek an understanding of the differences between highly ionized gas at low redshift and high redshift ; c) test the predictions of cosmological simulations; and (d) investigate the origin of hot gas in Damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs), that may represent the high-redshift precursors of galaxies like the Milky Way. This project will make use of new spectr al analysis techniques pioneered at the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (the host institution), which correlate the absorption in spectra separated by small angular scales on the sky. This technique will enable the spatial distribution of highly ionized gas in the high-redshift Universe to be studied for the first time.

Fields of science

• natural sciences › physical sciences › astronomy › physical cosmology › galaxy evolution
• natural sciences › physical sciences › optics › spectroscopy

Keywords

• Intergalactic Medium
• Testing Cosmological Simulations

Programme(s)

• FP6-MOBILITY - Human resources and Mobility in the specific programme for research, technological development and demonstration "Structuring the European Research Area" under the Sixth Framework Programme 2002-2006

Topic(s)

• MOBILITY-2.1 - Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowships (EIF)

Call for proposal

FP6-2004-MOBILITY-5
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

SCF - Marie Curie actions-Series of events

Coordinator

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: 3 rue Michel Ange ; PARIS ; France
• Total cost: No data