Probing Structure in Cold Gas at z ≲ 1 with Gravitationally Lensed Quasar Sight Lines

Kulkarni, Varsha P.; Cashman, Frances H.; López, Sebastián; Ellison, Sara L.; Som, Debopam; Maureira, María José

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ab4c2e

Cited by 20 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 123 publications

(169 reference statements)

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“…Multi-sightline information on the CGM of single galaxies has been obtained in a few cases from binary or multiple (two to four) grouped QSOs behind foreground galaxies (e.g., Bechtold et al 1994;Martin et al 2010;Keeney et al 2013;Bowen et al 2016), gravitationally lensed quasars (e.g., Smette et al 1992;Rauch et al 2001;Ellison et al 2004;Lopez et al 2005;Zahedy et al 2016;Rubin et al 2018;Kulkarni et al 2019), giant gravitational arcs (e.g., Lopez et al 2020), or extended bright background objects observed with integral field units (e.g., Péroux et al 2018). These observations provide better constraints on the kinematic relationship between the CGM gas and the galaxy and on the size of CGM structures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Project AMIGA: The Circumgalactic Medium of Andromeda*

Lehner

Berek

Howk

et al. 2020

ApJ

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Project AMIGA (Absorption Maps In the Gas of Andromeda) is a survey of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of Andromeda (M31, R vir ;300 kpc) along 43 QSO sightlines at impact parameters 25 R569 kpc (25 at RR vir). We use ultraviolet absorption measurements of Si II, Si III, Si IV, C II, and C IV from the Hubble Space Telescope/Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and O VI from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer to provide an unparalleled look at how the physical conditions and metals are distributed in the CGM of M31. We find that Si III and O VI have a covering factor near unity for R1.2 R vir and 1.9 R vir , respectively, demonstrating that M31 has a very extended ∼10 4-10 5.5 K ionized CGM. The metal and baryon masses of the 10 4-10 5.5 K CGM gas within R vir are 10 8 and 4×10 10 (Z/0.3 Z e) −1 M e , respectively. There is not much azimuthal variation in the column densities or kinematics, but there is with R. The CGM gas at R0.5 R vir is more dynamic and has more complicated, multiphase structures than at larger radii, perhaps a result of more direct impact of galactic feedback in the inner regions of the CGM. Several absorbers are projected spatially and kinematically close to M31 dwarf satellites, but we show that those are unlikely to give rise to the observed absorption. Cosmological zoom simulations of ∼L * galaxies have O VI extending well beyond R vir as observed for M31 but do not reproduce well the radial column density profiles of the lower ions. However, some similar trends are also observed, such as the lower ions showing a larger dispersion in column density and stronger dependence on R than higher ions. Based on our findings, it is likely that the Milky Way has a ∼10 4-10 5.5 K CGM as extended as for M31 and their CGM (especially the warm-hot gas probed by O VI) are overlapping.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Project AMIGA: The Circumgalactic Medium of Andromeda*

Lehner

Berek

Howk

et al. 2020

ApJ

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“…Multi-sightline information on the CGM of single galaxies has been obtained in a few cases from binary or multiple (2-4) grouped QSOs behind foreground galaxies (e.g., Bechtold et al 1994;Martin et al 2010;Keeney et al 2013;Bowen et al 2016), gravitationally-lensed quasars (e.g., Smette et al 1992;Rauch et al 2001;Ellison et al 2004;Lopez et al 2005;Zahedy et al 2016;Ru-bin et al 2018;Kulkarni et al 2019), giant gravitational arcs (e.g., Lopez et al 2020), or extended bright background objects observed with integral field units (e.g., Péroux et al 2018). These observations provide better constraints on the kinematic relationship between the CGM gas and the galaxy and on the size of CGM structures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Project AMIGA: The Circumgalactic Medium of Andromeda

Lehner,

Berek,

Howk

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Project AMIGA (Absorption Maps In the Gas of Andromeda) is a large ultraviolet Hubble Space Telescope program, which has assembled a sample of 43 QSOs that pierce the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of Andromeda (M31) from R = 25 to 569 kpc (25 of them probing gas from 25 kpc to about the virial radius-R vir = 300 kpc-of M31). Our large sample provides an unparalleled look at the physical conditions and distribution of metals in the CGM of a single galaxy using ions that probe a wide range of gas phases (Si II, Si III, Si IV, C II, C IV, and O VI, the latter being from the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer). We find that Si III and O VI have near unity covering factor maintained all the way out to 1.2R vir and 1.9R vir , respectively. We show that Si III is the dominant ion over Si II and Si IV at any R. While we do not find that the properties of the CGM of M31 depend strongly on the azimuth, we show that they change remarkably around 0.3-0.5R vir , conveying that the inner regions of the CGM of M31 are more dynamic and have more complicated multi-phase gas-structures than at R 0.5R vir . We estimate the metal mass of the CGM within R vir as probed by Si II, Si III, and Si IV is 2 × 10 7 M and by O VI is > 8 × 10 7 M , while the baryon mass of the ∼ 10 4 -10 5.5 K gas is 4 × 10 10 (Z/0.3 Z ) −1 M within R vir . We show that different zoom-in cosmological simulations of L * galaxies better reproduce the column density profile of O VI with R than Si III or the other studied ions. We find that observations of the M31 CGM and zoom-in simulations of L * galaxies have both lower ions showing higher column density dispersion and dependence on R than higher ions, indicating that the higher ionization structures are larger and/or more broadly distributed.

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“…On smaller scales, gravitationally lensed background objects provide multiple images as background sources to study the material in absorption (e.g. Rauch et al 2001;Ellison et al 2004;Lopez et al 2007;Chen et al 2014;Rubin et al 2018;Kulkarni et al 2019). Such observations allow us to determine the coherence scale which is the length scale over which the gas traced by Ly𝛼 or metals does not vary.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clumpiness of Observed and Simulated Cold Circumgalactic Gas

Augustin,

Péroux,

Hamanowicz

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Determining the clumpiness of matter around galaxies is pivotal to a full understanding of the spatially inhomogeneous, multi-phase gas in the circumgalactic medium (CGM). We combine high spatially resolved 3D observations with hydrodynamical cosmological simulations to measure the cold circumgalactic gas clumpiness. We present new adaptive-optics-assisted VLT/MUSE observations of a quadruply lensed quasar, targeting the CGM of 2 foreground 𝑧 ∼1 galaxies observed in absorption. We additionally use zoom-in FOGGIE simulations with exquisite resolution (∼0.1 kpc scales) in the CGM of galaxies to compute the physical properties of cold gas traced by Mg II absorbers. By contrasting these mock-observables with the VLT/MUSE observations, we find a large spread of fractional variations of Mg II equivalent widths with physical separation, both in observations and simulations. The simulations indicate a dependence of the Mg II coherence length on the underlying gas morphology (filaments vs clumps). The 𝑧 abs =1.168 Mg II system shows coherence over 6 kpc and is associated with an [O II] emitting galaxy situated 89 kpc away, with SFR ≥ 4.6 ± 1.5 M /yr and 𝑀 * = 10 9.6±0.2 𝑀 . Based on this combined analysis, we determine that the absorber is consistent with being an inflowing filament. The 𝑧 abs =1.393 Mg II system traces dense CGM gas clumps varying in strength over 2 kpc physical scales. Our findings suggest that this absorber is likely related to an outflowing clump. Our joint approach combining 3D-spectroscopy observations of lensed systems and simulations with extreme resolution in the CGM put new constraints on the clumpiness of cold CGM gas, a key diagnostic of the baryon cycle.

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Probing Structure in Cold Gas at z ≲ 1 with Gravitationally Lensed Quasar Sight Lines

Cited by 20 publications

References 123 publications

Project AMIGA: The Circumgalactic Medium of Andromeda*

Project AMIGA: The Circumgalactic Medium of Andromeda*

Project AMIGA: The Circumgalactic Medium of Andromeda

Clumpiness of Observed and Simulated Cold Circumgalactic Gas

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