The Statistics of Density Peaks and the Column Density Distribution of the Lyα Forest
The Statistics of Density Peaks and the Column Density Distribution of the Lyα Forest
We develop a method to calculate the column density distribution of the Lyα forest for column densities in the range 1012.5-1014.5 cm-2. The Zeldovich approximation, with appropriate smoothing, is used to compute the density and peculiar velocity fields. The effect of the latter on absorption profiles is discussed, and it …