Outskirts of Distant Galaxies In Absorption

Abstract

QSO absorption spectroscopy provides a sensitive probe of both the neutral medium and diffuse ionized gas in the distant Universe. It extends 21cm maps of gaseous structures around low-redshift galaxies both to lower gas column densities and to higher redshifts. Combining galaxy surveys with absorption-line observations of gas around galaxies enables comprehensive studies of baryon cycles in galaxy outskirts over cosmic time. This Chapter presents a review of the empirical understanding of the cosmic neutral gas reservoir from studies of damped Lya absorbers (DLAs). It describes the constraints on the star formation relation and chemical enrichment history in the outskirts of distant galaxies from DLA studies. A brief discussion of available constraints on the ionized circumgalactic gas from studies of lower column density Lya absorbers and associated ionic absorption transitions is presented at the end.

45 pages, 7 figures, invited review, Book chapter in "Outskirts of Galaxies", Eds. J. H. Knapen, J. C. Lee and A. Gil de Paz, Astrophysics and Space Science Library, Springer, in press

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Cited by in corpus (18)

• Survival and mass growth of cold gas in a turbulent, multiphase medium
• A clumpy and anisotropic galaxy halo at z=1 from gravitational-arc tomography
• The Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) I. Overview and the diverse environments of Lyman limit systems at z<1
• A Complete Census of Circumgalactic MgII at Redshift z<~ 0.5
• Slicing the cool circumgalactic medium along the major-axis of a star-forming galaxy at $z=0.7$
• The Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) -- III. Physical properties and elemental abundances of Lyman limit systems at $z<1$
• A Giant Intragroup Nebula Hosting a Damped Lya Absorber at z=0.313
• SUPER. VI. A giant molecular halo around a z~2 quasar
• Telltale signs of metal recycling in the circumgalactic medium of a $z\sim 0.77$ galaxy
• The Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) IV: The Complex Multiphase Circumgalactic Medium as Revealed by Partial Lyman Limit Systems
• The Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) VI: Connecting Physical Properties of the Cool Circumgalactic Medium to Galaxies at $z\approx 1$
• Empirical constraints on the turbulence in QSO host nebulae from velocity structure function measurements
• Metallicities in the Outer Regions of Spiral Galaxies
• HI in the Outskirts of Nearby Galaxies
• Observing the Effects of Galaxy Interactions on the Circumgalactic Medium
• Resolved galactic superwinds reconstructed around their host galaxies at z>3
• Discovery of a damped Ly$\alpha$ absorber originating in a spectacular interacting dwarf galaxy pair at $z=0.026$
• How far have metals reached? Reconciling statistical constraints and enrichment models at reionization