A sub-solar Fe/O, log (T/K) ∼ 7.5 gas component permeating the Milky Way’s CGM

Abstract

Our study focuses on characterizing the highly ionized gas within the Milky Way’s (MW) Circumgalactic Medium (CGM) that gives rise to ionic transitions in the X-ray band 2–25 Å. Utilizing stacked Chandra/ACIS-S MEG and LETG spectra toward Quasar (QSO) sightlines, we employ the self-consistent hybrid ionization code phase to model our data. The stacked spectra are optimally described by three distinct gas phase components: warm [log (T/K) ∼ 5.5], warm-hot [log (T/K) ∼6], and hot [log (T/K) ∼ 7.5] components. These findings confirm the presence of the hot component in the MW’s CGM indicating its coexistence with warm and warm-hot gas phases. We find this hot component to be homogeneous in temperature but inhomogeneous in column density. The gas in the hot component requires overabundances relative to solar to be consistent with the Dispersion Measure (DM) from the Galactic halo reported in the literature. For the hot phase we estimated a DM = $55.1^{+29.9}_{-23.7}$ pc cm−3. We conclude that this phase is either enriched in Oxygen, Silicon, and Sulfur, or has metallicity over 6 times solar value, or a combination of both. We do not detect Fe L-shell absorption lines, implying O/Fe ≥ 4. The non-solar abundance ratios found in the supervirial gas component in the Galactic halo suggest that this phase arises from Galactic feedback.