Browsing by Author "McGreer, Ian"

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    Discovery of an Enormous Lyalpha Nebula in a Massive Galaxy Overdensity at z=2.3
    (2017) Cai, Zheng; Fan, Xiaohui; Yang, Yujin; Bian, Fuyan; Prochaska, J. Xavier; Zabludoff, Ann; McGreer, Ian; Zheng, Zhen-Ya; Green, Richard; Cantalupo, Sebastiano; Frye, Brenda; Hamden, Erika; Jiang, Linhua; Kashikawa, Nobunari; Wang, Ran
    Enormous Ly alpha nebulae (ELANe), unique tracers of galaxy density peaks, are predicted to lie at the nodes and intersections of cosmic filamentary structures. Previous successful searches for ELANe have focused on wide-field narrowband surveys or have targeted known sources such as ultraluminous quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) or radio galaxies. Utilizing groups of coherently strong Ly alpha absorptions, we have developed a new method to identify high-redshift galaxy overdensities and have identified an extremely massive overdensity, BOSS1441, at z = 2-3. In its density peak, we discover an ELAN that is associated with a relatively faint continuum. To date, this object has the highest diffuse Ly alpha nebular luminosity of L-nebula = 5.1 +/- 0.1 x 10(44) erg s(-1). Above the 2 sigma surface brightness limit of SBLy alpha = 4.8 x 10(-18) erg s(-1) cm(-2) arcsec(-2), this nebula has an end-to-end spatial extent of 442 kpc. This radio-quiet source also has extended C IV lambda 1549 and He II lambda 1640 emission on greater than or similar to 30 kpc scales. Note that the Ly alpha, He II, and C IV emissions all have double-peaked line profiles. Each velocity component has an FWHM of approximate to 700-1000 km s(-1). We argue that this Lya nebula could be powered by shocks due to an active galactic nucleus-driven outflow or photoionization by a strongly obscured source.
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    Mapping the Most Massive Overdensities through Hydrogen (MAMMOTH). II. Discovery of the Extremely Massive Overdensity BOSS1441 at z=2.32
    (IOP PUBLISHING LTD, 2017) Cai, Zheng; Fan, Xiaohui; Bian, Fuyan; Zabludoff, Ann; Yang, Yujin; Prochaska, J. Xavier; McGreer, Ian; Zheng, Zhen Ya; Kashikawa, Nobunari; Wang, Ran; Frye, Brenda; Green, Richard; Jiang, Linhua
    Cosmological simulations suggest a strong correlation between high optical-depth Lya absorbers, which arise from the intergalactic medium, and 3D mass overdensities on scales of 10-30 h(-1) comoving Mpc. By examining the absorption spectra of similar to 80,000 QSO sight lines over a volume of 0.1 Gpc(3) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey III (SDSS-III), we have identified an extreme overdensity, BOSS1441, which contains a rare group of strong Lya absorbers at z = 2.32 +/- 0.02. This absorber group is associated with six QSOs at the same redshift on a 30 comoving Mpc scale. Using Mayall/MOSAIC narrowband and broadband imaging, we detect Lya emitters (LAEs) down to 0.7 x L-Ly alpha ' * a and reveal a large-scale structure of LAEs in this field. Our follow-up LBT observations have spectroscopically confirmed 20 galaxies in the density peak. We show that BOSS1441 has an LAE overdensity of 10.8 +/- 2.6 on a 15 comoving Mpc scale, which could collapse to a massive cluster with M greater than or similar to 10(15) M-circle dot at z similar to 0. This overdensity is among the most massive large-scale structures at z similar to 2 discovered to date.