On the Detectability of Visible-wavelength Line Emission from the Local Circumgalactic and Intergalactic Medium

Lokhorst, Deborah; Abraham, Roberto; Dokkum, Pieter van; Wijers, Nastasha; Schaye, Joop

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab184e

Cited by 19 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 110 publications

(151 reference statements)

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“…They found that future space based experiments with a sensitivity of 3.7×10 −9 erg/s/cm 2 /sr (∼37 mag/arcsec 2 ) will be able to detect hydrogen and helium in intergalactic filaments. Lokhorst et al (2019) have used EA-GLE simulations with a CLOUDY emission model to predict the fluxes from the CGM and IGM and investigated the detectability of faint Hα emission at low redshifts. They found that the Dragonfly Telephoto Array 1 , equipped with suitable narrowband filters, would be able to directly map the cosmic web.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Emission from the circumgalactic medium: from cosmological zoom-in simulations to multiwavelength observables

Augustin

Quiret

Milliard

et al. 2019

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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We simulate the flux emitted from galaxy halos in order to quantify the brightness of the circumgalactic medium (CGM). We use dedicated zoom-in cosmological simulations with the hydrodynamical Adaptive Mesh Refinement code RAMSES, which are evolved down to z=0 and reach a maximum spatial resolution of 380 h −1 pc and a gas mass resolution up to 1.8×10 5 h −1 M in the densest regions. We compute the expected emission from the gas in the CGM using CLOUDY emissivity models for different lines (e.g. Lyα, CIV, OVI, CVI, OVIII) considering UV background fluorescence, gravitational cooling and continuum emission. In the case of Lyα we additionally consider the scattering of continuum photons. We compare our predictions to current observations and find them to be in good agreement at any redshift after adjusting the Lyα escape fraction. We combine our mock observations with instrument models for FIREBall-2 (UV balloon spectrograph) and HARMONI (visible and NIR IFU on the ELT) to predict CGM observations with either instrument and optimise target selections and observing strategies. Our results show that Lyα emission from the CGM at a redshift of 0.7 will be observable with FIREBall-2 for bright galaxies (NUV∼18 mag), while metal lines like OVI and CIV will remain challenging to detect. HARMONI is found to be well suited to study the CGM at different redshifts with various tracers.

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confidence: 99%

Emission from the circumgalactic medium: from cosmological zoom-in simulations to multiwavelength observables

Augustin

Quiret

Milliard

et al. 2019

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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“…For α λ X 10 −2 − 10 −3 , the average intensity given by equation ( 1) may be detectable. Existing IFUs on ∼ 10m optical telescopes are sensitive to surface brightness as low as I λ X ∼ 300 − 1000 γ cm −2 s −1 sr −1 (Martin et al 2010;Morrissey et al 2012;Lokhorst et al 2019), with IFUs on future extremely large telescopes projecting factor of ∼ 3 − 10 improvements (Lokhorst et al 2019). In the UV, a hypothetical Zodiacal background-limited UV space telescope with mirror diameter D and field of view larger than…”

Section: Energetic Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Theoretical work on the CGM has focused primarily on absorption. The number of studies predicting CGM line emission is more limited (van de Voort & Schaye 2013; Corlies & Schiminovich 2016;Sravan et al 2016;Lokhorst et al 2019;Augustin et al 2019;Faerman et al 2020;Corlies et al 2020). The emission picture is further complicated by the fact that galaxy formation simulations -the resource used to predict emission in the vast majority of studiesgenerally do not match the known properties of the CGM, often producing ionic column densities that are off from the observed values by orders of magnitude (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Absorption-based Circumgalactic Medium Line Emission Estimates

Piacitelli¹,

Solhaug²,

Faerman³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Motivated by the integral field units on large aperture telescopes and proposals for ultravioletsensitive space telescopes to probe circumgalactic medium (CGM) emission, we survey the most promising CGM emission lines and how such observations can inform our understanding of the CGM and its relation to galaxy formation. We tie our emission estimates to HST/COS absorption measurements of ions around z ≈ 0.2 Milky Way mass halos and motivated models for the density and temperature of gas, and we provide formulas that simplify extending our estimates to other samples and physical scenarios. We find that O iii 5007 Å and N ii 6583 Å, which at fixed ionic column density are primarily sensitive to the thermal pressure of the gas they inhabit, may be detectable with KCWI and especially IFUs on 30 m telescopes out to half a virial radius. We comment on the implications of existing O iii and N ii stacking measurements by Zhang and coworkers (2018). O v 630 Å and O vi 1032, 1038 Å are perhaps the most promising ultraviolet lines, with motivated models predicting intensities > 100 γ cm −2 s −1 sr −1 in the inner 100 kpc of Milky-Way like systems. A detection would confirm the collisionally ionized picture and constrain the density profile of the CGM. Other ultraviolet metal lines constrain the amount of gas that is actively cooling and mixing. We find that C iii 978 Å and C iv 1548 Å may be detectable if an appreciable fraction of the observed O vi column is associated with mixing or cooling gas. Hydrogen n > 2 Lyman-series lines are too weak to be detectable, and Hα emission within 100 kpc of Milky Way-like galaxies is within the reach of current integral field units even for the minimum signal from ionizing background-fluorescence.

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“…Even in the strongest emission lines, the optical emission from the CGM is expected to be extremely faint; for example, modeling of Hα emission from the CGM at z = 0 (Lokhorst et al 2019) suggests that pushing down to ≈ 10 −19 to 10 −20 erg s −1 cm −2 arcsec −2 will be needed to detect this gas. While this is significantly deeper than current imaging capabilities, the CGM may have significant substructure (see e.g.…”

Section: Narrowband Imaging Of the Circumgalactic Mediummentioning

confidence: 99%

Deep Imaging of Diffuse Light Around Galaxies and Clusters: Progress and Challenges

Mihos¹

2019

Preprint

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Over the past several decades, advances in telescope/detector technologies and deep imaging techniques have pushed surface brightness limits to ever fainter levels. We can now both detect and measure the diffuse, extended star light that surrounds galaxies and permeates galaxy clusters, enabling the study of galaxy halos, tidal streams, diffuse galaxy populations, and the assembly history of galaxies and galaxy clusters. With successes come new challenges, however, and pushing even deeper will require careful attention to systematic sources of error. In this review I highlight recent advances in the study of diffuse starlight in galaxies, and discuss challenges faced by the next generation of deep imaging campaigns.

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On the Detectability of Visible-wavelength Line Emission from the Local Circumgalactic and Intergalactic Medium

Cited by 19 publications

References 110 publications

Emission from the circumgalactic medium: from cosmological zoom-in simulations to multiwavelength observables

Emission from the circumgalactic medium: from cosmological zoom-in simulations to multiwavelength observables

Absorption-based Circumgalactic Medium Line Emission Estimates

Deep Imaging of Diffuse Light Around Galaxies and Clusters: Progress and Challenges

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