smaller clumps of colder gas

A cosmic web filament revealed in Lyman-alpha
emission around a luminous high-redshift quasar
http://arxiv.org/abs/1401.4469

This work indicates unknown contribution
of smaller and colder clumps of gas
fluorescently illuminated by a background intense quasar flashlight
represented by lyman alpha spectral characteristic.

How cold and how small, that is the question?

Richard D Saam

On Friday, January 31, 2014 4:33:31 PM UTC-5, Richard D. Saam wrote:
A cosmic web filament revealed in Lyman-alpha
emission around a luminous high-redshift quasar
.....
How cold and how small, that is the question?

Why not read the paper? physical size ~460 kpc and T 5 x 10^4 K

CM

On 2/1/14, 2:36 AM, wrote:
On Friday, January 31, 2014 4:33:31 PM UTC-5, Richard D. Saam wrote:
A cosmic web filament revealed in Lyman-alpha
emission around a luminous high-redshift quasar
....
How cold and how small, that is the question?

Why not read the paper? physical size ~460 kpc and T 5 x 10^4 K

CM

Yes, read the paper:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1401.4469

Issue one
"Resolving a large population of small,
cold gas clumps within the low-density IGM that are
illuminated and ionized by the intense radiation of the
quasar at scales below a few kpc."

Issue two
"Some other physical process that is not fully captured by
current grid-based simulations increases the fraction of cold
gas around the quasar"

"Proper modeling of this gas
phase will likely require a new generation of numerical
models that are able - simultaneously - to spatially resolve
these small IGM clumps within large simulation boxes, treat
the multiphase nature of this gas and its interaction with
galaxies and quasars."

How cold and how small, that is the question?

RDS