The Impact of AGN Jet Speed on the Lyα Forest Flux Power Spectrum

Abstract The Ly α forest has received attention recently as a constraint for galactic feedback. In particular, different active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback models have been shown to have varying effects on the Ly α forest. Some show minimal effect, while others have shown dramatic effects that may be observable given current data. Out of the various Ly α forest statistics, the 1D transmitted flux power spectrum (P1D) has shown the most potential in its ability to distinguish between feedback models. In this work we analyze the effects that AGN jets in the Simba simulation have on the Ly α forest P1D. We specifically explore how changing the maximum speed of the jets impacts the predicted P1D across a wide range of redshifts (0.1 < z < 2). We find that the impact of changing the jet speed on the P1D is most dramatic at lower redshifts ( z < 1) and k ≳ 2 × 10 −2 .