Minihalo Model for the Low-Redshift Lyman alpha Absorbers Revisited

Abstract

We reconsider the basic properties of the classical minihalo model of Rees and Milgrom in light of the new work, both observational (on "dark galaxies" and masses of baryonic haloes) and theoretical (on the cosmological mass function and the history of star formation). In particular, we show that more detailed models of ionized gas in haloes of dark matter following isothermal and Navarro-Frenk-White density profile can effectively reproduce particular aspects of the observed column density distribution function in a heterogeneous sample of low-and intermediate-redshift Ly$alpha$ forest absorption lines.

Keywords

• Quasars: absorption lines
• Galaxies: halos
• dark matter