Prospects for constraining quasar ages with fibre spectrographs: quasar-induced Ly α emission from the intergalactic medium

Abstract

ABSTRACT We present a theoretical framework for linking quasar properties, such as quasar age, to the surrounding Ly α emission intensity. In particular, we focus on a method for mapping the large-scale structure of Ly α emission intensity with galaxy spectra from wide-field spectroscopic surveys, e.g. the Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph (PFS) or the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), and consider the quasar-induced Ly α emission from the intergalactic medium (IGM). To do this, we construct a theoretical model based on two physical processes: resonant scattering of quasar Ly α photons and fluorescence due to quasar ionizing photons, finding that the fluorescence contribution due to optically thick gas clouds is dominant. Taking into account the light-cone effect and assuming a typical quasar spectrum, we calculate the fluorescence contribution to the spectrum stacked within each bin of the separation angle from the quasar as a function of quasar age. Furthermore, we compute the quasar-Ly α emission cross-correlation and its SNR for the planned PFS survey. The predicted signal can only account for $\sim 10~{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the measurements indicated from the BOSS and eBOSS surveys in the outer region of $\gtrsim 10\ \rm {cMpc}\ \rm {h}^{-1}$, and the predicted SNR is not sufficient to detect the quasar-induced contribution. However, we found that our model, combined with the contribution of star-forming galaxies, is not in conflict with these measurements. We discuss other possible contributions to the Ly α emission excess around quasars, the efficiency of using spectroscopic fibres, and the redshift dependence of our model.