Abstract Details
| Name: Katherine Rawlins Affiliation: University of Mumbai Conference ID: ASI2018_1584 Title : The interstellar radiation field of high-redshift damped Lyman-alpha absorbers Authors and Co-Authors : Gargi Shaw (UM-DAE Centre for Excellence in Basic Sciences, Mumbai), Raghunathan Srianand (Inter-University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics, Pune) Abstract Type : Poster Abstract Category : Extragalactic astronomy Abstract : Intervening clouds of gas along quasar sightlines are studied through their absorption lines in the quasar spectrum. Damped Lyman-alpha absorbers (DLAs) are clouds with very high content of neutral gas. Insight into the structure and dynamics of these systems will improve our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution. We perform numerical simulations of high-redshift H2-bearing DLAs using the spectral synthesis code CLOUDY. The observed column densities of multiple atomic and molecular species allow us to produce well-constrained models, which probe the physical environment of these DLAs. Our models consider ultraviolet radiation from both the metagalactic background and local star formation. We deduce the nature and intensity of the interstellar radiation field. Our study also emphasizes the need for more accurate understanding of the metagalactic background. |