The Qz5 Survey (I): How the HI Mass Density of the Universe Evolves With Cosmic Time

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution spectroscopic data from the Qz5 survey to trace the evolution of the universe's neutral hydrogen mass density, revealing its increase from high redshift to a peak at z~3 and subsequent decline.

Contribution

First high-resolution spectroscopic survey of 63 quasars at z~5, providing new measurements of HI mass density and DLA incidence rates at early cosmic times.

Findings

HI mass density peaks at z~3 and decreases towards z~0.

Lowest DLA incidence rate observed at z>4.5.

HI mass density at z~5 is approximately 0.56 x 10^8 M_sun Mpc^-3.

Abstract

We report that the neutral hydrogen (HI) mass density of the Universe ($\rho_{HI}$) increases with cosmic time since $z \sim 5$, peaks at $z \sim 3$, and then decreases toward $z \sim 0$. This is the first result of Qz5, our spectroscopic survey of 63 quasars at $z \gtrsim 5$ with VLT/X-SHOOTER and Keck/ESI aimed at characterizing intervening HI gas absorbers at $z \sim 5$. The main feature of Qz5 is the high resolution ($R \sim 7000 - 9000$) of the spectra, which allows us to (1) accurately detect high column density HI gas absorbers in an increasingly neutral intergalactic medium at $z \sim 5$ and (2) determine the reliability of previous $\rho_{HI}$ measurements derived with lower resolution spectroscopy. We find 5 intervening Damped Ly$\alpha$ absorbers (DLAs) at $z > 4.5$, which corresponds to the lowest DLA incidence rate ($0.034^{0.05}_{0.02}$) at $z \gtrsim 2$. We also measure the lowest $\rho_{HI}$ at $z \gtrsim 2$ from our sample of DLAs and subDLAs, corresponding to $\rho_{HI} = 0.56^{0.82}_{0.31} \times 10^8~$M$_{\odot}~$Mpc$^{-3}$ at $z \sim 5$. Taking into account our measurements at $z \sim 5$ and systematic biases in the DLA detection rate at lower spectral resolutions, we conclude that $\rho_{HI}$ doubles from $z \sim 5$ to $z \sim 3$. From these results emerges a qualitative agreement between how the cosmic densities of HI gas mass, molecular gas mass, and star-formation rate build up with cosmic time.