Characterizing the chemically enriched circumgalactic medium of ∼38 000 luminous red galaxies in SDSS DR12

Huang, Yi‐Hui Christine; Chen, Hsiao‐Wen; Johnson, Sean D.; Weiner, Benjamin J.

doi:10.1093/mnras/stv2327

Cited by 69 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 92 publications

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“…The implied sub-virial velocities in the CGM around massive red galaxies have been noted before (Zhu et al 2014;Huang et al 2016), and are particularly mysterious. One possibility is that we are seeing the condensation of thermal instabilities out of a hot volume-filling phase (Voit et al 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

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The Properties of the Circumgalactic Medium in Red and Blue Galaxies: Results From the Cos-Gass+cos-Halos Surveys

Borthakur

Heckman

Tumlinson

et al. 2016

ApJ

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We use the combined data from the COS-GASS and COS-Halos surveys to characterize the Circum-Galactic Medium (CGM) surrounding typical low-redshift galaxies in the mass range  *~-M M 10 9.5 11.5, and over a range of impact parameters extending to just beyond the halo virial radius (R vir ). We find the radial scale length of the distributions of the equivalent widths of the Lyαand Si III absorbers to be ∼1 and ∼0.4R vir , respectively. The radial distribution of equivalent widths is relatively uniform for the blue galaxies, but highly patchy (i.e., it has a low covering fraction) for the red galaxies. We also find that the Lyαand Si III equivalent widths show significant positive correlations with the specific star formation rate (sSFR) of the galaxy. We find a surprising lack of correlations between the halo mass (virial velocity) and either the velocity dispersions or velocity offsets of the Lyαlines. The ratio of the velocity offset to the velocity dispersion for the Lyαabsorbers has a mean value of ∼4, suggesting that a given line of sight is intersecting a dynamically coherent structure in the CGM, rather than a sea of orbiting clouds. The kinematic properties of the CGM are similar in the blue and red galaxies, although we find that a significantly larger fraction of the blue galaxies have large Lyαvelocity offsets (>200 km s −1 ). We show that-if the CGM clouds represent future fuel for star formation-our new results could imply a large drop in the sSFR across the galaxy mass-range we probe.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Again, we see no dependence of CGM kinematics on halo mass. In particular, the low (sub-virial) velocity spread of CGM absorbers in the halos of massive red galaxies has been noted before (Zhu et al 2014;Huang et al 2016). We will discuss the possible implications of these results in Section 4.…”

Section: Kinematicsmentioning

confidence: 81%

The Properties of the Circumgalactic Medium in Red and Blue Galaxies: Results From the Cos-Gass+cos-Halos Surveys

Borthakur

Heckman

Tumlinson

et al. 2016

ApJ

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“…The mean gas covering fraction is found to be κMg II > 15% at d < ∼ 100 kpc (Gauthier & Chen 2011;Huang et al 2016). However, the physical nature of such gas remains unknown.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the physical nature of such gas remains unknown. Based on the suppressed velocity dispersion between Mg II gas and galaxies, and the observed preferential geometric alignment of Mg II absorbers with filaments, Huang et al (2016) have recently argued that the observed Mg II absorbers are best-explained by a combination of cool clouds formed in thermally unstable hot halos and satellite accretion through filaments. We expect that Mg II gas produced in these processes should exhibit an abundance pattern that reflects an α-element enhancement.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Incidentally, QSO absorption-line spectroscopy carried out in the vicinities of red galaxies at intermediate redshift, z ∼ 0.5, continues to uncover extended cool halo gas to projected distances beyond d ≈ 100 kpc (e.g., Gauthier et al 2009Bowen & Chelouche 2011;Thom et al 2012;Huang et al 2016), demonstrating that there may indeed be sufficient supplies of cool gas in these massive quiescent halos. Absorption spectroscopy along multiple sightlines in the vicinities of lensing galaxies is particularly interesting, because the small projected distances of these lensed QSO sightlines from the lensing galaxies at d = 3 −15 kpc (or d = 1−2 re) provide an unprecedented opportunity to probe and spatially resolve the cool gas content both in the interstellar space and in the halos of quiescent galaxies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Probing the cool interstellar and circumgalactic gas of three massive lensing galaxies atz= 0.4–0.7

Zahedy

Chen

Rauch

et al. 2016

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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We present multi-sightline absorption spectroscopy of cool gas around three lensing galaxies at z = 0.4 − 0.7. These lenses have half-light radii r e = 2.6 − 8 kpc and stellar masses of log M * /M = 10.9 − 11.4, and therefore resemble nearby passive elliptical galaxies. The lensed QSO sightlines presented here occur at projected distances of d = 3−15 kpc (or d ≈ 1−2 r e ) from the lensing galaxies, providing for the first time an opportunity to probe both interstellar gas at r ∼ r e and circumgalactic gas at larger radii r r e of these distant quiescent galaxies. We observe distinct gas absorption properties among different lenses and among sightlines of individual lenses. Specifically, while the quadruple lens for HE 0435−1223 shows no absorption features to very sensitive limits along all four sightlines, strong Mg II, Fe II, Mg I, and Ca II absorption transitions are detected along both sightlines near the double lens for HE 0047−1756, and in one of the two sightlines near the double lens for HE 1104−1805. The absorbers are resolved into 8 − 15 individual components with a line-of-sight velocity spread of ∆ v ≈ 300 − 600 km s −1 . The large ionic column densities, log N > ∼ 14, observed in two components suggest that these may be Lyman limit or damped Lyα absorbers with a significant neutral hydrogen fraction. The majority of the absorbing components exhibit a uniform super solar Fe/Mg ratio with a scatter of < 0.1 dex across the full ∆ v range. Given a predominantly old stellar population in these lensing galaxies, we argue that the observed large velocity width and Fe-rich abundance pattern can be explained by SNe Ia enriched gas at radius r ∼ r e . We show that additional spatial constraints in line-of-sight velocity and relative abundance ratios afforded by a multisightline approach provide a powerful tool to resolve the origin of chemically-enriched cool gas in massive halos.

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The Circumgalactic Medium in Massive Halos

Chen

2017

Gas Accretion Onto Galaxies

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This chapter presents a review of the current state of knowledge on the cool (T ∼ 10 4 K) halo gas content around massive galaxies at z ≈ 0.2 − 2. Over the last decade, significant progress has been made in characterizing the cool circumgalactic gas in massive halos of M h ≈ 10 12−14 M at intermediate redshifts using absorption spectroscopy. Systematic studies of halo gas around massive galaxies beyond the nearby universe are made possible by large spectroscopic samples of galaxies and quasars in public archives. In addition to accurate and precise constraints for the incidence of cool gas in massive halos, detailed characterizations of gas kinematics and chemical compositions around massive quiescent galaxies at z ≈ 0.5 have also been obtained. Combining all available measurements shows that infalling clouds from external sources are likely the primary source of cool gas detected at d > ∼ 100 kpc from massive quiescent galaxies. The origin of the gas closer in is currently less certain, but SNe Ia driven winds appear to contribute significantly to cool gas found at d < 100 kpc. In contrast, cool gas observed at d < ∼ 200 kpc from luminous quasars appears to be intimately connected to quasar activities on parsec scales. The observed strong correlation between cool gas covering fraction in quasar host halos and quasar bolometric luminosity remains a puzzle. Combining absorption-line studies with spatially-resolved emission measurements of both gas and galaxies is the necessary next step to address remaining questions.

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Characterizing the chemically enriched circumgalactic medium of ∼38 000 luminous red galaxies in SDSS DR12

Cited by 69 publications

References 92 publications

The Properties of the Circumgalactic Medium in Red and Blue Galaxies: Results From the Cos-Gass+cos-Halos Surveys

The Properties of the Circumgalactic Medium in Red and Blue Galaxies: Results From the Cos-Gass+cos-Halos Surveys

Probing the cool interstellar and circumgalactic gas of three massive lensing galaxies atz= 0.4–0.7

The Circumgalactic Medium in Massive Halos

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