Transverse Flux Correlation Function of Quasar Pairs
Format
Oral Presentation
Faculty Mentor Name
Isabelle Paris
Faculty Mentor Department
Physics
Additional Faculty Mentor Name
Helene Flohic
Additional Faculty Mentor Name
James Hetrick
Abstract/Artist Statement
For the last five billion years the universe has been expanding in size at an increasing rate. With modern technology we are able to observe objects at very high redshift, which were created in the early universe. Being able to analyze and observe these objects allows us to put specific constraints on the universe (age, size, dark matter fraction…etc). Looking at the spectra of highly redshifted objects, such as quasars, we can see a series of absorption lines called the Lyman alpha forest. The angular correlation in the Lyman alpha spectra of quasar pairs allows us to measure the size of the absorbing objects. This works best at very small-scale (below one arcmin). The most recent use of this method consisted of 32 quasar pairs and only two of those had a sky separation below 1 arcmin (Coppolani et al., 2006). The sample size that is used in this work is from the SDSS-III DR12. This catalog has over 1500 quasars pairs below two arcmin separation, giving us much lower error bars, and therefore putting much better constraints on the cosmological parameters that can be inferred from the correlation function
Location
DeRosa University Center, Room 211
Start Date
25-4-2015 2:00 PM
End Date
25-4-2015 4:00 PM
Transverse Flux Correlation Function of Quasar Pairs
DeRosa University Center, Room 211
For the last five billion years the universe has been expanding in size at an increasing rate. With modern technology we are able to observe objects at very high redshift, which were created in the early universe. Being able to analyze and observe these objects allows us to put specific constraints on the universe (age, size, dark matter fraction…etc). Looking at the spectra of highly redshifted objects, such as quasars, we can see a series of absorption lines called the Lyman alpha forest. The angular correlation in the Lyman alpha spectra of quasar pairs allows us to measure the size of the absorbing objects. This works best at very small-scale (below one arcmin). The most recent use of this method consisted of 32 quasar pairs and only two of those had a sky separation below 1 arcmin (Coppolani et al., 2006). The sample size that is used in this work is from the SDSS-III DR12. This catalog has over 1500 quasars pairs below two arcmin separation, giving us much lower error bars, and therefore putting much better constraints on the cosmological parameters that can be inferred from the correlation function