We summarize and reanalyze observations bearing upon missing galactic baryons, where we propose a consistent picture for halo gas in L L* galaxies. The hot X-ray emitting halos are detected to 50-70 kpc, where typically, M hot (< 50 kpc) ∼ 5 × 10 9 M , and with density n ∝ r −3/2 . When extrapolated to R 200 , the gas mass is comparable to the stellar mass, but about half of the baryons are still missing from the hot phase. If extrapolated to 1.9-3R 200 , the baryon to dark matter ratio approaches the cosmic value. Significantly flatter density profiles are unlikely for R < 50 kpc and they are disfavored but not ruled out for R > 50 kpc. For the Milky Way, the hot halo metallicity lies in the range 0.3-1 solar for R < 50 kpc. Planck measurements of the thermal Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect toward stacked luminous galaxies (primarily early-type) indicate that most of their baryons are hot, near the virial temperature, and extend beyond R 200 . This stacked SZ signal is nearly an order of magnitude larger than that inferred from the X-ray observations of individual (mostly spiral) galaxies with M * > 10 11.3 M . This difference suggests that the hot halo properties are distinct for early and late type galaxies, possibly due to different evolutionary histories. For the cooler gas detected in UV absorption line studies, we argue that there are two absorption populations: extended halos; and disks extending to ∼ 50 kpc, containing most of this gas, and with masses a few times lower than the stellar masses. Such extended disks are also seen in 21 cm HI observations and in simulations.

Photospheric radius expansion (PRE) bursts have already been used to constrain the masses and radii of neutron stars. RXTE observed three PRE bursts in 4U 1746-37, all with low touchdown fluxes. We discuss here the possibility of a low-mass neutron star in 4U 1746-37 because the Eddington luminosity depends on stellar mass. With typical values of hydrogen mass fraction and color correction factor, a Monte Carlo simulation was applied to constrain the mass and radius of a neutron star in 4U 1746-37. 4U 1746-37 has a high inclination angle. Two geometric effects, the reflection of the far-side accretion disk and the obscuration of the near-side accretion disk, have also been included in the mass and radius constraints of 4U 1746-37. If the reflection of the far-side accretion disk is accounted for, a low-mass compact object (mass of 0.41 ± 0.14M and radius of 8.73 ± 1.54 km at 68% confidence) exists in 4U 1746-37. If another effect operated, 4U 1746-37 may contain an ultra-low-mass and small-radius object (M = 0.21 ± 0.06M , R = 6.26 ± 0.99 km at 68% confidence). Combining all possibilities, the mass of 4U 1746-37 is 0.41 +0.70 −0.30 M at 99.7% confidence. For such low-mass neutron stars, it could be reproduced by a self-bound compact star, i.e., a quark star or quark-cluster star.

The galactic gaseous halo is a gas reservoir for the interstellar medium in the galaxy disk, supplying materials for star formation. We developed a gaseous halo model connecting the galaxy disk and the gaseous halo by assuming that the star formation rate on the disk is balanced by the radiative cooling rate of the gaseous halo, including stellar feedback. In addition to a single-temperature gaseous halo in collisional ionization equilibrium, we also consider the photoionization effect and a steady-state cooling model. Photoionization is important for modifying the ion distribution in low-mass galaxies and outskirts of massive galaxies due to the low densities. The multi-phase cooling model dominates the region within the cooling radius, where t cooling = t Hubble . Our model reproduces most of the observed high ionization state ions for a wide range of galaxy masses (i.e., O vi, O vii, Ne viii, Mg x, and O viii). We find that the O vi column density has a narrow range around ≈ 10 14 cm −2 for halo masses from M ≈ 3 × 10 10 M to 6 × 10 12 M , which is consistent with some but not all observational studies. For galaxies with halo masses 3 × 10 11 M , photoionization produces most of the O vi, while for more massive galaxies, the O vi is from the medium that is cooling from higher temperatures. Fitting the Galactic (Milky-Way) O vii and O viii suggests a gaseous halo model where the metallicity is ≈ 0.55 Z and the gaseous halo has a maximum temperature of ≈ 1.9 × 10 6 K. This gaseous halo model does not close the census of baryonic material within R 200 .

The hot gas in galaxy halos may account for a significant fraction of missing baryons in galaxies, and some of these gases can be traced by high ionization absorption systems in QSO UV spectra. Using high S/N ratio HST/COS spectra, we discovered a high ionization state system at z = 1.1912 in the sightline toward LBQS 1435-0134, and two-components absorption lines are matched for Mg, and H i. Mg x, detected for the first time (5.8σ), is a particularly direct tracer of hot galactic halos, as its peak ion fraction occurs near 10 6.1 K, about the temperature of a virialized hot galaxy halo of mass ∼ 0.5M * . With Mg x and Ne viii, a photoionization model cannot reproduce the observed column densities with path lengths of galaxy halos. For collisional ionization models, one or two temperature models do not produce acceptable fits, but a three temperature model or a power law model can produce the observed results. In the power law model, dN/dT = 10 4.4±2.2−[Z/X] T 1.55±0.41 with temperatures in the range 10 4.39±0.13 K < T < 10 6.04±0.05 K, the total hydrogen column density is 8.2 × 10and the positive power law index indicates most of the mass is at the high temperature end. We suggest that this absorption system is a hot volume-filled galaxy halo rather than interaction layers between the hot halo and cool clouds. The temperature dependence of the column density is likely due to the local mixture of multiple phase gases.

This paper presents a systematic study of the photoionization and thermodynamic properties of the cool circumgalactic medium (CGM) as traced by rest-frame ultraviolet absorption lines around 26 galaxies at redshift z ≲ 1. The study utilizes both high-quality far-ultraviolet and optical spectra of background QSOs and deep galaxy redshift surveys to characterize the gas density, temperature, and pressure of individual absorbing components and to resolve their internal non-thermal motions. The derived gas density spans more than three decades, from $\log (n_{\rm H}/{{\rm cm^{-3}}}) \approx -4$ to −1, while the temperature of the gas is confined in a narrow range of log (T/K) ≈ 4.3 ± 0.3. In addition, a weak anticorrelation between gas density and temperature is observed, consistent with the expectation of the gas being in photoionization equilibrium. Furthermore, decomposing the observed line widths into thermal and non-thermal contributions reveals that more than 30 per cent of the components at z ≲ 1 exhibit line widths driven by non-thermal motions, in comparison to &lt;20 per cent found at z ≈ 2–3. Attributing the observed non-thermal line widths to intra-clump turbulence, we find that massive quenched galaxies on average exhibit higher non-thermal broadening/turbulent energy in their CGM compared to star-forming galaxies at z ≲ 1. Finally, strong absorption features from multiple ions covering a wide range of ionization energy (e.g. from Mg ii to O iv) can be present simultaneously in a single absorption system with kinematically aligned component structure, but the inferred pressure in different phases may differ by a factor of ≈10.