Publication
Title
Sample variance and Lyman $\alpha$ forest transmission statistics
Author
Abstract
 We compare the observed probability distribution function (PDF) of the transmission in the HI Lyman alpha forest, measured from the Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph (UVES) 'Large Programme' sample at redshifts z = [2, 2.5, 3], to results from the GIMIC cosmological simulations. Our measured values for the mean transmission and its PDF are in good agreement with published results. Errors on statistics measured from high-resolution data are typically estimated using bootstrap or jackknife resampling techniques after splitting the spectra into chunks. We demonstrate that these methods tend to underestimate the sample variance unless the chunk size is much larger than is commonly the case. We therefore estimate the sample variance from the simulations. We conclude that observed and simulated transmission statistics are in good agreement; in particular, we do not require the temperature-density relation to be 'inverted'.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - Oxford
Publication
Oxford : 2013
ISSN
0035-8711
Volume/pages
428:1(2013), p. 540-550
ISI
000318227900052
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
UAntwerpen
 Faculty/Department Research group Publication type Subject Affiliation Publications with a UAntwerp address