The clustering of C IV and Si IV at the end of reionisation: A perspective from the E-XQR-30 survey

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Main Authors: Welsh, Louise, D'Odorico, Valentina, Fontanot, Fabio, Davies, Rebecca, Bosman, Sarah E. I., Cupani, Guido, Becker, George, Keating, Laura, Ryan-Weber, Emma, Bischetti, Manuela, Haehnelt, Martin, Chen, Huanqing, Zhu, Yongda, Lai, Samuel, Hirschmann, Michaela, Xie, Lizhi, Qin, Yuxiang
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Published: 2025
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author Welsh, Louise
D'Odorico, Valentina
Fontanot, Fabio
Davies, Rebecca
Bosman, Sarah E. I.
Cupani, Guido
Becker, George
Keating, Laura
Ryan-Weber, Emma
Bischetti, Manuela
Haehnelt, Martin
Chen, Huanqing
Zhu, Yongda
Lai, Samuel
Hirschmann, Michaela
Xie, Lizhi
Qin, Yuxiang
author_facet Welsh, Louise
D'Odorico, Valentina
Fontanot, Fabio
Davies, Rebecca
Bosman, Sarah E. I.
Cupani, Guido
Becker, George
Keating, Laura
Ryan-Weber, Emma
Bischetti, Manuela
Haehnelt, Martin
Chen, Huanqing
Zhu, Yongda
Lai, Samuel
Hirschmann, Michaela
Xie, Lizhi
Qin, Yuxiang
contents We aim to study the clustering of metal absorption lines and the structures that they arise in as a function of cosmic time. We focus on C IV and Si IV absorption features that are identified along a given quasar sightline. We exploit the two-point correlation function (2PCF) to investigate the clustering of these structures as a function of their separation. We utilise the E-XQR-30 data to perform a novel analysis at z>5. We also draw on literature surveys (including XQ-100) of lower redshift quasars to investigate the possible evolution of this clustering towards cosmic noon (i.e., z~2-3). We find no significant evolution with redshift when considering the separation of absorbers in velocity space. Since we are comparing data across a large interval of cosmic time, we also consider the separation between absorbers in the reference frame of physical distances. In this reference frame, we find that the amplitude of the clustering increases with cosmic time for both C IV and Si IV on the scales of <1500 physical kpc. For the first time, we assess the 2PCF of C IV and Si IV close to the epoch of reionisation utilising the absorber catalogue from the E-XQR-30 survey. We compare this with lower redshift data and find that, on small scales, the clustering of these structures grows with cosmic time. We compare these results to the clustering of galaxies in the GAEA simulations. It appears that the structures traced by C IV are broadly comparable to the galaxies from the considered simulations. The clustering is most similar to that of the galaxies with virial masses M~10^10.5 M_sun. We require tailor-made simulations to investigate the full range of factors contributing to the observed clustering. Future ground-based spectrographs will further facilitate surveys of absorbers at this epoch with increased sensitivity.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_03585
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The clustering of C IV and Si IV at the end of reionisation: A perspective from the E-XQR-30 survey
Welsh, Louise
D'Odorico, Valentina
Fontanot, Fabio
Davies, Rebecca
Bosman, Sarah E. I.
Cupani, Guido
Becker, George
Keating, Laura
Ryan-Weber, Emma
Bischetti, Manuela
Haehnelt, Martin
Chen, Huanqing
Zhu, Yongda
Lai, Samuel
Hirschmann, Michaela
Xie, Lizhi
Qin, Yuxiang
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We aim to study the clustering of metal absorption lines and the structures that they arise in as a function of cosmic time. We focus on C IV and Si IV absorption features that are identified along a given quasar sightline. We exploit the two-point correlation function (2PCF) to investigate the clustering of these structures as a function of their separation. We utilise the E-XQR-30 data to perform a novel analysis at z>5. We also draw on literature surveys (including XQ-100) of lower redshift quasars to investigate the possible evolution of this clustering towards cosmic noon (i.e., z~2-3). We find no significant evolution with redshift when considering the separation of absorbers in velocity space. Since we are comparing data across a large interval of cosmic time, we also consider the separation between absorbers in the reference frame of physical distances. In this reference frame, we find that the amplitude of the clustering increases with cosmic time for both C IV and Si IV on the scales of <1500 physical kpc. For the first time, we assess the 2PCF of C IV and Si IV close to the epoch of reionisation utilising the absorber catalogue from the E-XQR-30 survey. We compare this with lower redshift data and find that, on small scales, the clustering of these structures grows with cosmic time. We compare these results to the clustering of galaxies in the GAEA simulations. It appears that the structures traced by C IV are broadly comparable to the galaxies from the considered simulations. The clustering is most similar to that of the galaxies with virial masses M~10^10.5 M_sun. We require tailor-made simulations to investigate the full range of factors contributing to the observed clustering. Future ground-based spectrographs will further facilitate surveys of absorbers at this epoch with increased sensitivity.
title The clustering of C IV and Si IV at the end of reionisation: A perspective from the E-XQR-30 survey
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.03585