%0 Generic %1 cooke2015primordial %A Cooke, Ryan %A Pettini, Max %D 2015 %K abundance correction deuterium ionization %T The Primordial Abundance of Deuterium: Ionization correction %U http://arxiv.org/abs/1510.03867 %X We determine the relative ionization of deuterium and hydrogen in low metallicity damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) and sub-DLA systems using a detailed suite of photoionization simulations. We model metal-poor DLAs as clouds of gas in pressure equilibrium with a host dark matter halo, exposed to the Haardt & Madau (2012) background radiation of galaxies and quasars at redshift z~3. Our results indicate that the deuterium ionization correction correlates with the H I column density and the ratio of successive ion stages of the most commonly observed metals. The N(N II) / N(N I) column density ratio provides the most reliable correction factor, being essentially independent of the gas geometry, H I column density, and the radiation field. We provide a series of convenient fitting formulae to calculate the deuterium ionization correction based on observable quantities. The ionization correction typically does not exceed 0.1 per cent for metal-poor DLAs, which is comfortably below the current measurement precision (2 per cent). However, the deuterium ionization correction may need to be applied when a larger sample of D/H measurements becomes available.

@misc{cooke2015primordial, abstract = {We determine the relative ionization of deuterium and hydrogen in low metallicity damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) and sub-DLA systems using a detailed suite of photoionization simulations. We model metal-poor DLAs as clouds of gas in pressure equilibrium with a host dark matter halo, exposed to the Haardt & Madau (2012) background radiation of galaxies and quasars at redshift z~3. Our results indicate that the deuterium ionization correction correlates with the H I column density and the ratio of successive ion stages of the most commonly observed metals. The N(N II) / N(N I) column density ratio provides the most reliable correction factor, being essentially independent of the gas geometry, H I column density, and the radiation field. We provide a series of convenient fitting formulae to calculate the deuterium ionization correction based on observable quantities. The ionization correction typically does not exceed 0.1 per cent for metal-poor DLAs, which is comfortably below the current measurement precision (2 per cent). However, the deuterium ionization correction may need to be applied when a larger sample of D/H measurements becomes available.}, added-at = {2015-10-15T09:57:08.000+0200}, author = {Cooke, Ryan and Pettini, Max}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2f4cda4ffbe71750325a6424082ed017d/miki}, description = {[1510.03867] The Primordial Abundance of Deuterium: Ionization correction}, interhash = {e4c6ed516052828a66405185a1167a5e}, intrahash = {f4cda4ffbe71750325a6424082ed017d}, keywords = {abundance correction deuterium ionization}, note = {cite arxiv:1510.03867Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society}, timestamp = {2015-10-15T09:57:08.000+0200}, title = {The Primordial Abundance of Deuterium: Ionization correction}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1510.03867}, year = 2015 }