Characterizing Circumgalactic Gas around Massive Ellipticals at z ~ 0.4 I. Initial Results

Abstract

We present a new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) absorption-line survey to study halo gas around 16 luminous red galaxies (LRGs) at z=0.21-0.55. The LRGs are selected uniformly with stellar mass Mstar>1e11 Msun and no prior knowledge of the presence/absence of any absorption features. Based on observations of the full Lyman series, we obtain accurate measurements of neutral hydrogen column density N(HI) and find that high-N(HI) gas is common in these massive quiescent halos with a median of <log N(HI)> = 16.6 at projected distances d<~160 kpc. We measure a mean covering fraction of optically-thick gas with log N(HI)>~17.2 of <kappa>LLS=0.44^{+0.12}_{-0.11} at d<~160 kpc and <kappa>LLS=0.71^{+0.11}_{-0.20} at d<~100 kpc. The line-of-sight velocity separations between the HI absorbing gas and LRGs are characterized by a mean and dispersion of <v_{gas-gal}>=29 km/s and σ_v_{gas-gal}=171 km/s. Combining COS FUV and ground-based echelle spectra provides an expanded spectral coverage for multiple ionic transitions, from low-ionization MgII and SiII, to intermediate ionization SiIII and CIII, and to high-ionization OVI absorption lines. We find that intermediate ions probed by CIII and SiIII are the most prominent UV metal lines in LRG halos with a mean covering fraction of <kappa(CIII)>_{0.1}=0.75^{+0.08}_{-0.13} for W(977)>=0.1 Ang at d<160 kpc, comparable to what is seen for CIII in L* and sub-L* star-forming and red galaxies but exceeding MgII or OVI in quiescent halos. The COS-LRG survey shows that massive quiescent halos contain widespread chemically-enriched cool gas and that little distinction between LRG and star-forming halos is found in their HI and CIII content.

arXiv comment19 pages, 6 figures, accepted by MNRAS

References in corpus (79)

• emcee: The MCMC Hammer
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary
• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• Mass and environment as drivers of galaxy evolution in SDSS and zCOSMOS and the origin of the Schechter function
• K-corrections and filter transformations in the ultraviolet, optical, and near infrared
• The Circumgalactic Medium
• Spectroscopic Target Selection for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: The Luminous Red Galaxy Sample
• Modeling the Panchromatic Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies
• Galaxy Evolution from Halo Occupation Distribution Modeling of DEEP2 and SDSS Galaxy Clustering
• The Large, Oxygen-Rich Halos of Star-Forming Galaxies Are A Major Reservoir of Galactic Metals
• PRIMUS: Constraints on Star Formation Quenching and Galaxy Merging, and the Evolution of the Stellar Mass Function From z=0-1
• Multi-Phase Galaxy Formation: High Velocity Clouds and the Missing Baryon Problem
• The Atlas3D project -- XIII. Mass and morphology of HI in early-type galaxies as a function of environment
• Damped Lyman Alpha Systems at z<1.65: The Expanded SDSS HST Sample
• The COS-Halos Survey: Rationale, Design, and A Census of Circumgalactic Neutral Hydrogen
• The COS-Halos Survey: An Empirical Description of the Metal-Line Absorption in the Low-Redshift Circumgalactic Medium
• The Clustering of Luminous Red Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Imaging Data
• The Masses of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies
• The Gaseous Environment of High-z Galaxies: Precision Measurements of Neutral Hydrogen in the Circumgalactic Medium of z ~ 2-3 Galaxies in the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey
• The Spatial Clustering of Star-forming Galaxies at Redshifts 1.4<z<3.5
• An Empirical Characterization of Extended Cool Gas Around Galaxies Using MgII Absorption Features
• The COS-Halos Survey: Metallicities in the Low-Redshift Circumgalactic Medium
• The clustering of intermediate redshift quasars as measured by the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey
• Bimodality of low-redshift circumgalactic O VI in non-equilibrium EAGLE zoom simulations
• Quasars Probing Quasars I: Optically Thick Absorbers Near Luminous Quasars
• On the possible environmental effect in distributing heavy elements beyond individual gaseous halos
• Early-type galaxies in different environments: an HI view
• Not Dead Yet: Cool Circumgalactic Gas in the Halos of Early Type Galaxies
• Dusty waves on a starry sea: the mid-infrared view of M31
• Non-Equilibirum ionisation and cooling of metal-enriched gas in the presence of a photo-ionisation background
• The distribution of neutral hydrogen around high-redshift galaxies and quasars in the EAGLE simulation
• Mining Circumgalactic Baryons in the Low-Redshift Universe
• Evolution of the Stellar-to-Dark Matter Relation: Separating Star-Forming and Passive Galaxies from z=1 to 0
• The Population of Weak MgII Absorbers. II The Properties of Single-Cloud Systems
• Quasars Probing Quasars VII. The Pinnacle of the Cool Circumgalactic Medium Surrounds Massive z~2 Galaxies
• Evidence for a Massive, Extended Circumgalactic Medium Around the Andromeda Galaxy
• Hydrogen and Metal Line Absorption Around Low-Redshift Galaxies in Cosmological Hydrodynamic Simulations
• The Atlas3D project -- XXVII. Cold Gas and the Colours and Ages of Early-type Galaxies
• Dark Halos of M31 and the Milky Way
• A Universal Density Structure for Circum-Galactic Gas
• The Impact of Galactic Feedback on the Circumgalactic Medium
• A Stellar Feedback Origin for Neutral Hydrogen in High-Redshift Quasar-Mass Halos
• Narrow associated QSO absorbers: clustering, outflows and the line-of-sight proximity effect
• Evidence for Cold Accretion: Primitive Gas Flowing onto a Galaxy at z~0.274
• The Kinematics of Intermediate Redshift Mg II Absorbers
• The COS-Halos Survey: Keck LRIS and Magellan MagE Optical Spectroscopy
• A Substantial Mass of Cool, Metal-Enriched Gas Surrounding the Progenitors of Modern-Day Ellipticals
• The Large-scale Distribution of Cool Gas around Luminous Red Galaxies
• A Cross-Correlation Analysis of Mg II Absorption Line Systems and Luminous Red Galaxies from the SDSS DR5
• Halo-model signatures from 380,000 SDSS Luminous Red Galaxies with photometric redshifts
• Low-Redshift Lyman Limit Systems as Diagnostics of Cosmological Inflows and Outflows
• Feedback Heating in Cluster and Galactic Cooling Flows
• A Hubble Space Telescope Study of Lyman Limit Systems: Census and Evolution
• The Clustering of MgII Absorption Systems at z=0.5 and Detection of Cold Gas in Massive Halos
• Spatially Resolved Velocity Maps of Halo Gas Around Two Intermediate-redshift Galaxies
• Tracing the Cosmic Metal Evolution in the Low-Redshift Intergalactic Medium
• Probing the Cool Interstellar and Circumgalactic Gas of Three Massive Lensing Galaxies at z=0.4-0.7
• High Resolution STIS/HST and HIRES/Keck Spectra of Three Weak MgII Absorbers Toward PG 1634+706
• Low-metallicity Absorbers Account for Half of the Dense Circumgalactic Gas at z < 1
• Probing the IGM-galaxy connection at z<0.5 II. New insights into the galaxy environments of OVI absorbers in PKS 0405-123
• The incidence of cool gas in ~ 1e13 Msun halos
• Star formation laws in the Andromeda galaxy: gas, stars, metals and the surface density of star formation
• On the origin of excess cool gas in quasar host halos
• Galaxy Clusters in the Line of Sight to Background Quasars: I. Survey Design and Incidence of MgII Absorbers at Cluster Redshifts
• Warm-hot Gas in X-ray Bright Galaxy Clusters and the H I-deficient Circumgalactic Medium in Dense Environments
• Warm Gas in the Virgo Cluster: I. Distribution of Lya Absorbers
• The MgII Cross-section of Luminous Red Galaxies
• The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: The Star Formation Histories of Luminous Red Galaxies
• The stellar evolution of Luminous Red Galaxies, and its dependence on colour, redshift, luminosity and modelling
• The High-Mass End of the Red Sequence at z~0.55 from SDSS-III/BOSS: completeness, bimodality and luminosity function
• The Star Formation History of Luminous Red Galaxies Hosting MgII Absorbers
• Radio Detection of Radio-Quiet Galaxies
• Project AMIGA: A Minimal Covering Factor for Optically Thick Circumgalactic Gas Around the Andromeda Galaxy
• An Ultraviolet Survey of Low-Redshift Partial Lyman-Limit Systems with the HST Cosmic Origins Spectrograph
• On the radial profile of gas-phase Fe/α ratio around distant galaxies
• The Effect of Galactic Feedback on Gas Accretion and Wind Recycling
• Discovery of an HI-rich Gas Reservoir in the Outskirts of SZ-effect Selected Clusters
• Radio galaxies in the 2SLAQ Luminous Red Galaxy survey: II. The stellar populations of radio-loud and radio-quiet LRGs
• HST Detection of Extended Neutral Hydrogen in a Massive Elliptical at z = 0.4

Cited by in corpus (50)

• The Origins of the Circumgalactic Medium in the FIRE Simulations
• Resolving small-scale cold circumgalactic gas in TNG50
• Characterizing Circumgalactic Gas around Massive Ellipticals at z~0.4 - II. Physical Properties and Elemental Abundances
• The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Combined kinematic and thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich measurements from BOSS CMASS and LOWZ halos
• Hot Atmospheres, Cold Gas, AGN Feedback and the Evolution of Early Type Galaxies: a Topical Perspective
• Cooling flow solutions for the circumgalactic medium
• MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) -- II: Metal-enriched halo gas around z~1 galaxies
• The Fates of the Circumgalactic Medium in the FIRE Simulations
• The Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) I. Overview and the diverse environments of Lyman limit systems at z<1
• The Circumgalactic Medium of Milky Way-like Galaxies in the TNG50 Simulation -- I: Halo Gas Properties and the Role of SMBH Feedback
• CGM${}^2$ I: The Extent of the Circumgalactic Medium Traced by Neutral Hydrogen
• The COS CGM Compendium. III: Metallicity and Physical Properties of the Cool Circumgalactic Medium at z<1
• Metal-enriched halo gas across galaxy overdensities over the last 10 billion years
• Galaxy and Quasar Fueling Caught in the Act from the Intragroup to the Interstellar Medium
• 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 Red Dead Redemption Survey of Circumgalactic Gas About Massive Galaxies. I. Mass and Metallicity of the Cool Phase
• A Comparison of Circumgalactic MgII Absorption between the TNG50 Simulation and the MEGAFLOW Survey
• Circumgalactic Pressure Profiles Indicate Precipitation-Limited Atmospheres for $M_{\ast }\sim 10^9$$-$$10^{11.5}{M}_{\odot }$
• Figuring Out Gas & Galaxies in Enzo (FOGGIE). III. The Mocky Way: Investigating Biases in Observing the Milky Way's Circumgalactic Medium
• Quasar Sightline and Galaxy Evolution (QSAGE) Survey - I. The Galaxy Environment of OVI Absorbers up to z=1.4 around PKS 0232-04
• The Impact of Type Ia Supernovae in Quiescent Galaxies: II. Energetics and Turbulence
• Thermal Instability in the CGM of $L_{\star }$ Galaxies: Testing "Precipitation" Models with the FIRE Simulations
• Figuring Out Gas & Galaxies In Enzo (FOGGIE) VI: The Circumgalactic Medium of $L^{\ast }$ Galaxies is Supported in an Emergent, Non-Hydrostatic Equilibrium
• The Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) IV: The Complex Multiphase Circumgalactic Medium as Revealed by Partial Lyman Limit Systems
• Cool circumgalactic gas of passive galaxies from cosmological inflow
• Morphological and Rotation Structures of Circumgalactic Mg II Gas in the EAGLE Simulation and the Dependence on Galaxy Properties
• 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
• MUSE-ALMA Haloes VIII: Statistical Study of Circumgalactic Medium Gas
• Clumpiness of Observed and Simulated Cold Circumgalactic Gas
• Figuring Out Gas & Galaxies In Enzo (FOGGIE) V: The Virial Temperature Does Not Describe Gas in a Virialized Galaxy Halo
• Directly tracing cool filamentary accretion over >100 kpc into the interstellar medium of a quasar host at z=1
• The Bimodal Absorption System Imaging Campaign (BASIC) I. A Dual Population of Low-metallicity Absorbers at z $<1$
• The Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) II: Discovery of an H${}_2$-Bearing DLA in the Vicinity of an Early-Type Galaxy at z = 0.576
• On The Effect of Environment on Line Emission from the Circumgalactic Medium
• The relationship between gas and galaxies at z<1 using the Q0107 quasar triplet
• Inflow of low-metallicity cool gas in the halo of the Andromeda galaxy
• Modeling Photoionized Turbulent Material in the Circumgalactic Medium II: Effect of Turbulence within a Stratified Medium
• Ram pressure stripping in clusters: Gravity can bind the ISM but not the CGM
• Detection of Metal-Rich, Cool-Warm Gas in the Outskirts of Galaxy Clusters
• Evidence for Late-Time Feedback from the Discovery of Multiphase Gas in a Massive Elliptical at $z=0.4$
• Extreme circumgalactic HI and CIII absorption around the most massive, quenched galaxies
• A High Signal-to-Noise HST Spectrum Toward J1009+0713: Precise Absorption Measurements in the CGM of Two Galaxies
• Introducing the Descriptive Parametric Model: Gaseous Profiles for Galaxies, Groups, and Clusters
• Kinematics of MgII Absorbers from the Redshift-space Distortion Around Massive Quiescent Galaxies
• The Circumgalactic Medium from the CAMELS Simulations: Forecasting Constraints on Feedback Processes from Future Sunyaev-Zeldovich Observations
• Origin of Weak MgII and Higher Ionization Absorption Lines in an Outflow from an Intermediate-Redshift Dwarf Satellite Galaxy
• The stellar population of a $z\sim 3.25$ Ly$\alpha$ emitting group associated with a damped Ly$\alpha$ absorber
• Ultraviolet Perspectives on Diffuse Gas in the Largest Cosmic Structures