若い宇宙に隠れた構造を解明(Astronomers reveal hidden structures in the young universe)

2026-03-03 ペンシルベニア州立大学(Penn State)

ペンシルベニア州立大学を含む国際研究チームは、宇宙誕生後間もない若い宇宙に存在する隠れた大規模構造を明らかにした。研究では高感度の天文観測データを解析し、初期宇宙に分布する銀河やガスの構造を詳細に調査した。その結果、従来の観測では捉えにくかったガス雲や銀河形成の前段階にあたる構造が確認され、宇宙初期にどのようにして銀河や宇宙の大規模構造が形成されたのかを理解する重要な手がかりが得られた。これらの構造は宇宙の物質分布や暗黒物質の影響とも関係している可能性があり、宇宙進化の過程を解明する上で重要な観測結果とされる。研究は、初期宇宙の形成史や銀河進化の理解を大きく前進させる成果と位置付けられている。

若い宇宙に隠れた構造を解明(Astronomers reveal hidden structures in the young universe)
Section of the Line Intensity Map created by charting the distribution and concentration of excited hydrogen via the Lyman alpha wavelength in the universe 10 billion years ago. The stars mark where HETDEX has found galaxies. The inset simulates the structure present in this map once it is zoomed in on and background noise is removed from the data. Credit: Maja Lujan Niemeyer/Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics/HETDEX, Chris Byrohl/Stanford University/HETDEX. All Rights Reserved.

<関連情報>

HETDEXにおけるLy α強度マッピング:銀河-Ly α強度クロスパワースペクトル Lyα Intensity Mapping in HETDEX: Galaxy-Lyα Intensity Cross-power Spectrum

Maja Lujan Niemeyer, Eiichiro Komatsu, José Luis Bernal, Chris Byrohl, Robin Ciardullo, Olivia Curtis, Daniel J. Farrow, Steven L. Finkelstein, Karl Gebhardt, Caryl Gronwall,…
The Astrophysical Journal  Published: 2026 March 3
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/ae3a98

Abstract

We present a measurement of the Lyα intensity mapping power spectrum from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX). We measure the cross-power spectrum of the Lyα intensity and Lyα-emitting galaxies (LAEs) in a redshift range of 1.9 ≤ z ≤   3.5. We calculate the intensity from HETDEX spectra that do not contain any detected LAEs above a signal-to-noise ratio of 5.5. To produce a power spectrum model and its covariance matrix, we simulate the data using lognormal mocks for the LAE catalog and Lyα intensity in redshift space. The simulations include the HETDEX sensitivity, selection function, and mask. The measurements yield the product of the LAE bias, the intensity bias, the mean intensity of undetected sources, and the ratio of the actual and fiducial redshift-space distortion parameters, bg bI IRSD/F¯ fidRSD =  (6.7 ± 3.1), (11.7 ± 1.4), and (8.3 ± 1.5) × 10−22 erg s −1 cm−2 arcsec−2 Å−1 in three redshift bins centered at z¯ = 2.1, 2.6, and 3.2, respectively. The results are reasonably consistent with cosmological hydrodynamical simulations that include Lyα radiative transfer. They are, however, significantly smaller than previous results from cross-correlations of quasars with Lyα intensity. These results demonstrate the statistical power of HETDEX for Lyα intensity mapping and pave the way for a more comprehensive analysis. They will also be useful for constraining models of Lyα emission from galaxies used in modern cosmological simulations of galaxy formation and evolution.

1701物理及び化学
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