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We present a survey for metal absorption systems traced by neutral oxygen over 3.2 < z < 6.5. Our survey uses Keck/ESI and VLT/X-Shooter spectra of 199 QSOs with redshifts up to 6.6. In total, we detect 74 OI absorbers, of which 57 are separated from the background QSO by more than 5000 km s(-1). We use a maximum likelihood approach to fit the distribution of OI lambda 1302 equivalent widths in bins of redshift and from this determine the evolution in number density of absorbers with W-1302 > 0.05 angstrom, of which there are 49 nonproximate systems in our sample. We find that the number density does not monotonically increase with decreasing redshift, as would naively be expected from the buildup of metal-enriched circumgalactic gas with time. The number density over 4.9 < z < 5.7 is a factor of 1.7-4.1 lower (68% confidence) than that over 5.7 < z < 6.5, with a lower value at z < 5.7 favored with 99% confidence. This decrease suggests that the fraction of metals in a low-ionization phase is larger at z similar to 6 than at lower redshifts. Absorption from highly ionized metals traced by CIV is also weaker in higher-redshift OI systems, supporting this picture. The evolution of OI absorbers implies that metal-enriched circumgalactic gas at z similar to 6 is undergoing an ionization transition driven by a strengthening ultraviolet background. This in turn suggests that the reionization of the diffuse intergalactic medium may still be ongoing at or only recently ended by this epoch.
Dwarf spheroidal galaxies are among the most promising targets for detecting signals of Dark Matter (DM) annihilations. The H.E.S.S. experiment has observed five of these systems for a total of about 130 hours. The data are re-analyzed here, and, in the absence of any detected signals, are interpreted in terms of limits on the DM annihilation cross section. Two scenarios are considered: i) DM annihilation into mono-energetic gamma-rays and ii) DM in the form of pure WIMP multiplets that, annihilating into all electroweak bosons, produce a distinctive gamma-ray spectral shape with a high-energy peak at the DM mass and a lower-energy continuum. For case i), upper limits at 95% confidence level of about <sigma upsilon > less than or similar to 3 x 10(-25) cm(3) s(-1) are obtained in the mass range of 400 GeV to 1TeV. For case ii), the full spectral shape of the models is used and several excluded regions are identified, but the thermal masses of the candidates are not robustly ruled out.