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Session 122 - Galaxies, Clusters of Galaxies & IGM.
Oral session, Saturday, January 10
Jefferson,
The most recent cosmological simulations suggested a unified though not uniform intergalactic medium (IGM) model. In this model, the spectrum of IGM density and temperature fluctuations can explain phenomena which were previous attributed to the discrete clouds surrounded by a high temperature IGM. In this paper we explore the power of the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) to probe this IGM. We use this model to extend the work of Shapiro and Bahcall (1980) by calculating the X-ray absorption spectrum from high redshift quasars, via the X-ray ``Gunn-Peterson'' test. The High Energy Transmission Gratings (HETG) on AXAF will provide unprecedented high energy resolution between 0.4 keV and 10 keV. Using the properties of HETG, we simulate the X-ray absorption spectrum of high redshiftquasars and examine the power of AXAF to constrain the properties of the IGM.
