Element Diffusion During Cosmological Structure Formation
| dc.creator | Medvigy, David | |
| dc.creator | Loeb, Abraham | |
| dc.date | 2001-09-30 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T02:00:27Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T02:00:27Z | |
| dc.description | We consider element diffusion during the linear growth of structure in the intergalactic medium (IGM) before the redshift of reionization. The elements produced during big bang nucleosynthesis (such as D, He-4 or Li-7) condensed in collapsing regions more readily than hydrogen. Diffusion was most effective when the IGM was neutral since the collisional cross-section between neutral species is smaller than the corresponding Coulomb cross-section in an ionized gas. We find that diffusion led to small deviations in element abundances of up to 0.1%. Abundance measurements to this level of precision in low-metallicity environments could provide information about the thermal and ionization history of the primordial gas during the early formation of structure in the IGM. | |
| dc.description | 24 pages, 9 figures, submitted to The Astrophysical Journal | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0110014 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0110014 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/3433 | |
| dc.subject | Astrophysics | |
| dc.title | Element Diffusion During Cosmological Structure Formation | |
| dc.type | text |