Flickering AGN can explain the strong circumgalactic O VI observed by COS-Halos

Abstract

Proximity zone fossils (PZFs) are ionization signatures around recently active galactic nuclei (AGN) where metal species in the circumgalactic medium remain over-ionized after the AGN has shut-off due to their long recombination timescales. We explore cosmological zoom hydrodynamic simulations using the EAGLE model paired with a non-equilibrium ionization and cooling module including time-variable AGN radiation to model PZFs around star-forming, disk galaxies in the z~0.2 Universe. Previous simulations typically under-estimated the O VI content of galactic haloes, but we show that plausible PZF models increase O VI column densities by 2-3x to achieve the levels observed around COS-Halos star-forming galaxies out to 150 kpc. Models with AGN bolometric luminosities >~10^43.6 erg s^-1, duty cycle fractions <~10%, and AGN lifetimes <~10^6 yr are the most promising, because their super-massive black holes grow at the cosmologically expected rate and they mostly appear as inactive AGN, consistent with COS-Halos. The central requirement is that the typical star-forming galaxy hosted an active AGN within a timescale comparable to the recombination time of a high metal ion, which for circumgalactic O VI is 10^7 years. H I, by contrast, returns to equilibrium much more rapidly due to its low neutral fraction and does not show a significant PZF effect. O VI absorption features originating from PZFs appear narrow, indicating photo-ionization, and are often well-aligned with lower metal ion species. PZFs are highly likely to affect the physical interpretation of circumgalactic high ionization metal lines if, as expected, normal galaxies host flickering AGN.

arXiv comment17 pages, 12 figures, accepted in MNRAS, companion website: http://noneq.strw.leidenuniv.nl/PZF/

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