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QSO Lyman limit absorption

Abstract

The redshift distribution of QSO absorption systems which are optically thick in the Lyman continuum matches that of a non-evolving population of absorbers in a standard Friedmann cosmological model over the redshift range 0.4–3.5. The density of absorbers per unit velocity in the QSO rest frame is roughly constant for −0.01 v/c 0.2 and shows a rapid increase with QSO emission redshift, in accord with an ‘intervening’ origin for the absorbers but contrary to expectation were the material intrinsic to the QSOs.

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Tytler, D. QSO Lyman limit absorption. Nature 298, 427–432 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1038/298427a0

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