Role of ionizing background and galactic feedback in the redshift space clustering of O vi absorbers in hydrodynamical simulations

Abstract

ABSTRACT We explore the effect of ionizing ultraviolet background (UVB) on the redshift space clustering of low-z (z ≤ 0.5) O vi absorbers using the Sherwood simulations incorporating ‘WIND’ (i.e. outflows driven by stellar feedback)-only and ‘WIND + AGN (active galactic nucleus)’ feedback. These simulations show positive clustering signals up to a scale of 3 Mpc. We find that the effect of feedback is restricted to small scales (i.e. ≤2 Mpc or ≈200 km s−1 at z ∼ 0.3) and ‘WIND’-only simulations produce a stronger clustering signal compared to simulations incorporating ‘WIND + AGN’ feedback. How the clustering signal is affected by the assumed UVB depends on the feedback processes assumed. For the simulations considered here, the effect of the UVB is confined to even smaller scales (i.e. <1 Mpc or ≈100 km s−1 at z ∼ 0.3). These scales are also affected by exclusion caused by line blending. Therefore, our study suggests that clustering at intermediate scales (i.e. 1–2 Mpc for simulations considered here) together with the observed column density distribution can be used to constrain the effect of feedback in simulations.