On the possible environmental effect in distributing heavy elements beyond individual gaseous halos

Abstract

We present a study of extended galaxy halo gas through HI and OVI absorption over two decades in projected distance at $z\approx 0.2$. The study is based on a sample of $95$ galaxies from a highly complete ($>80\%$) survey of faint galaxies ($L>0.1L_{\ast }$) with archival quasar absorption spectra and $53$ galaxies from the literature. A clear anti-correlation is found between HI (OVI) column density and virial radius normalized projected distance, $d/R_{\mathrm{h}}$. Strong HI (OVI) absorption systems with column densities greater than $10^{14.0}$ ($10^{13.5}$) cm${}^{-2}$ are found for $48$ of $54$ ($36$ of $42$) galaxies at $d<R_{\mathrm{h}}$ indicating a mean covering fraction of $⟨{\kappa }_{\mathrm{HI}}⟩=0.89$ ($⟨{\kappa }_{\mathrm{OVI}}⟩=0.86$). OVI absorbers are found at $d\approx R_{\mathrm{h}}$, beyond the extent observed for lower ionization species. At $d/R_{\mathrm{h}}=1-3$ strong HI (OVI) absorption systems are found for only $7$ of $43$ ($5$ of $34$) galaxies ($⟨{\kappa }_{\mathrm{HI}}⟩=0.16$ and $⟨{\kappa }_{\mathrm{OVI}}⟩=0.15$). Beyond $d=3R_{\mathrm{h}}$, the HI and OVI covering fractions decrease to levels consistent with coincidental systems. The high completeness of the galaxy survey enables an investigation of environmental dependence of extended gas properties. Galaxies with nearby neighbors exhibit a modest increase in OVI covering fraction at $d>R_{\mathrm{h}}$ compared to isolated galaxies (${\kappa }_{\mathrm{OVI}}\approx 0.13$ versus $0.04$) but no excess HI absorption. These findings suggest that environmental effects play a role in distributing heavy elements beyond the enriched gaseous halos of individual galaxies. Finally, we find that differential HI and OVI absorption between early- and late-type galaxies continues from $d<R_{\mathrm{h}}$ to $d\approx 3R_{\mathrm{h}}$.

11 pages, 6 figures. Published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

References in corpus (9)

• K-corrections and filter transformations in the ultraviolet, optical, and near infrared
• Mass, Metal, and Energy Feedback in Cosmological Simulations
• Characterizing the Circumgalactic Medium of Nearby Galaxies with HST/COS and HST/STIS Absorption-Line Spectroscopy
• The COS-Dwarfs Survey: The Carbon Reservoir Around sub-L* Galaxies
• Metal-line absorption around $z\approx$2.4 star-forming galaxies in the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey
• The Intrinsic Properties of SDSS Galaxies
• The Properties of Low Redshift Intergalactic O VI Absorbers Determined from High S/N Observations of 14 QSOs with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph
• Narrow associated QSO absorbers: clustering, outflows and the line-of-sight proximity effect
• Compact groups in theory and practice - III. Compact groups of galaxies in the Sixth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Cited by in corpus (52)

• The Circumgalactic Medium
• The COS-Halos Survey: Metallicities in the Low-Redshift Circumgalactic Medium
• The COS-Halos Survey: Origins of the Highly Ionized Circumgalactic Medium of Star-Forming Galaxies
• Deep learning predictions of galaxy merger stage and the importance of observational realism
• Cooling flow solutions for the circumgalactic medium
• Kinematics of Circumgalactic Gas: Feeding Galaxies and Feedback
• COS-Burst: Observations of the Impact of Starburst-Driven Winds on the Properties of the Circum-Galactic Medium
• Convolutional neural network identification of galaxy post-mergers in UNIONS using IllustrisTNG
• The Keck Baryonic Structure Survey: Using foreground/background galaxy pairs to trace the structure and kinematics of circumgalactic neutral hydrogen at $z\sim 2$
• Galaxy mergers moulding the circum-galactic medium - I. The impact of a major merger
• Circumgalactic Oxygen Absorption and Feedback
• The Physical Origins of the Identified and Still Missing Components of the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium: Insights from Deep Surveys in the Field of Blazar 1ES1553+113
• Star formation characteristics of CNN-identified post-mergers in the Ultraviolet Near Infrared Optical Northern Survey (UNIONS)
• MUSEQuBES: Characterizing the circumgalactic medium of redshift $\approx 3.3$ Ly$\alpha$ emitters
• The CGM${}^2$ Survey: Circumgalactic O VI from dwarf to massive star-forming galaxies
• The Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) V: On the Thermodynamic Properties of the Cool Circumgalactic Medium at $z<1$
• The Highly Ionized Circumgalactic Medium is Kinematically Uniform Around Galaxies
• The Impact of the Group Environment on the OVI Circumgalactic Medium
• Metal line emission from galaxy haloes at z~1
• The Geometry of Cold, Metal-Enriched Gas Around Galaxies at $z\sim 1.2$
• The Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) IV: The Complex Multiphase Circumgalactic Medium as Revealed by Partial Lyman Limit Systems
• Cloud-by-cloud, multiphase, Bayesian modeling: Application to four weak, low ionization absorbers
• Radiative turbulent mixing layers at high Mach numbers
• AGN in post-mergers from the Ultraviolet Near Infrared Optical Northern Survey
• Hot WHIM counterparts of FUV OVI absorbers: Evidence in the line-of-sight towards quasar 3C 273
• The Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) VI: Connecting Physical Properties of the Cool Circumgalactic Medium to Galaxies at $z\approx 1$
• Characterizing circumgalactic gas around massive ellipticals at z~0.4 III. The galactic environment of a chemically-pristine Lyman limit absorber
• The CGM${}^2$ Survey: Quenching and the Transformation of the Circumgalactic Medium
• The Impact of Cosmic Rays on the Kinematics of the Circumgalactic Medium
• Exploring the Milky Way Circumgalactic Medium in a Cosmological Context with a Semi-Analytic Model
• Gauging Metallicity of Diffuse Gas Under An Uncertain Ionizing Radiation Field
• The warm-hot circumgalactic medium around EAGLE-simulation galaxies and its detection prospects with X-ray line emission
• The diversity of the circumgalactic medium around z = 0 Milky Way-mass galaxies from the Auriga simulations
• How identifying circumgalactic gas by line-of-sight velocity instead of the location in 3D space affects O VI measurements
• Cold and Hot gas distribution around the Milky-Way-M31 system in the HESTIA simulations
• Probing the CGM of Low-redshift Dwarf Galaxies Using FIRE Simulations
• The relationship between gas and galaxies at z<1 using the Q0107 quasar triplet
• Modeling Photoionized Turbulent Material in the Circumgalactic Medium II: Effect of Turbulence within a Stratified Medium
• The Anisotropic Circumgalactic Medium of Massive Early-Type Galaxies
• Physical Conditions of Five O VI Absorption Systems Towards PG $1522+101$
• The high-velocity clouds above the disk of the outer Milky Way: misty precipitating gas in a region roiled by stellar streams
• Evidence for Late-Time Feedback from the Discovery of Multiphase Gas in a Massive Elliptical at $z=0.4$
• An Empirical Determination of the Dependence of the Circumgalactic Mass Cooling Rate and Feedback Mass Loading Factor on Galactic Stellar Mass
• A partial Lyman limit system tracing intragroup gas at $z\approx 0.8$ towards HE1003+0149
• Low Mass Group Environments have no Substantial Impact on the Circumgalactic Medium Metallicity
• Kinematics of Circumgalactic O VI Gas and Disk Rotation of $z\approx 0.2$ Star-forming Galaxies
• Introducing the Descriptive Parametric Model: Gaseous Profiles for Galaxies, Groups, and Clusters
• The COS-Holes Survey: Connecting Galaxy Black Hole Mass with the State of the CGM
• Intergalactic-Absorption Confounding Circumgalactic Observations
• The large-scale distribution of ionized metals in IllustrisTNG
• Modelling gas around galaxy pairs and groups using the Q0107 quasar triplet
• Ultraviolet Perspectives on Diffuse Gas in the Largest Cosmic Structures