Characterizing Circumgalactic Gas around Massive Ellipticals at z~0.4 - II. Physical Properties and Elemental Abundances

Abstract

We present a systematic investigation of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) within projected distances d<160 kpc of luminous red galaxies (LRGs). The sample comprises 16 intermediate-redshift (z=0.21-0.55) LRGs of stellar mass M_star>1e11 M_sun. Combining far-ultraviolet Cosmic Origin Spectrograph spectra from the Hubble Space Telescope and optical echelle spectra from the ground enables a detailed ionization analysis based on resolved component structures of a suite of absorption transitions, including the full HI Lyman series and various ionic metal transitions. By comparing the relative abundances of different ions in individually-matched components, we show that cool gas (T~1e4 K) density and metallicity can vary by more than a factor of ten in in an LRG halo. Specifically, metal-poor absorbing components with <1/10 solar metallicity are seen in 50% of the LRG halos, while gas with solar and super-solar metallicity is also common. These results indicate a complex multiphase structure and poor chemical mixing in these quiescent halos. We calculate the total surface mass density of cool gas, Σ_cool, by applying the estimated ionization fraction corrections to the observed HI column densities. The radial profile of Σ_cool is best-described by a projected Einasto profile of slope α=1 and scale radius r_s=48 kpc. We find that typical LRGs at z~0.4 contain cool gas mass of M_cool= (1-2) x1e10 M_sun at d<160 kpc (or as much as 4x1e10 M_sun at d<500 kpc), comparable to the cool CGM mass of star-forming galaxies. Furthermore, we show that high-ionization OVI and low-ionization absorption species exhibit distinct velocity profiles, highlighting their different physical origins. We discuss the implications of our findings for the origin and fate of cool gas in LRG halos.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in MNRAS after a minor revision. 23 pages, 14 figures, and a 29-page Appendix with 27 additional figures

References in corpus (93)

• emcee: The MCMC Hammer
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary
• A Universal Density Profile from Hierarchical Clustering
• Radiative transfer in a clumpy universe: IV. New synthesis models of the cosmic UV/X-ray background
• The Circumgalactic Medium
• Formation of Massive Galaxies at High Redshift: Cold Streams, Clumpy Disks and Compact Spheroids
• Cold dark matter haloes in the Planck era: evolution of structural parameters for Einasto and NFW profiles
• Galaxies in a simulated $\Lambda$CDM Universe I: cold mode and hot cores
• The COS-Halos Survey: Physical Conditions and Baryonic Mass in the Low-Redshift Circumgalactic Medium
• The Large, Oxygen-Rich Halos of Star-Forming Galaxies Are A Major Reservoir of Galactic Metals
• The redshift dependence of the structure of massive LCDM halos
• Gaseous Galaxy Halos
• The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph
• Multi-Phase Galaxy Formation: High Velocity Clouds and the Missing Baryon Problem
• The 2013 Release of Cloudy
• The Atlas3D project -- XIII. Mass and morphology of HI in early-type galaxies as a function of environment
• The COS-Halos Survey: An Empirical Description of the Metal-Line Absorption in the Low-Redshift Circumgalactic Medium
• Moving mesh cosmology: tracing cosmological gas accretion
• Time-Dependent Ionization in Radiatively Cooling Gas
• Thermal Instability in Gravitationally-Stratified Plasmas: Implications for Multi-Phase Structure in Clusters and Galaxy Halos
• Thermal Instability & the Feedback Regulation of Hot Halos in Clusters, Groups, and Galaxies
• Stellar mass -- halo mass relation and star formation efficiency in high-mass halos
• Probing the IGM/Galaxy Connection V: On the Origin of Lya and OVI Absorption at z<0.2
• An Empirical Characterization of Extended Cool Gas Around Galaxies Using MgII Absorption Features
• The COS-Halos Survey: Metallicities in the Low-Redshift Circumgalactic Medium
• A High-Resolution Survey of Low-Redshift QSO Absorption Lines: Statistics and Physical Conditions of O VI Absorbers
• A Characteristic Scale for Cold Gas
• Regulation of star formation in giant galaxies by precipitation, feedback, and conduction
• Evolution of the Intergalactic Opacity: Implications for the Ionizing Background, Cosmic Star Formation, and Quasar Activity
• Halo mass - concentration relation from weak lensing
• The Bimodal Metallicity Distribution of the Cool Circumgalactic Medium at z<1
• The circumgalactic medium of massive galaxies at z~3: a test for stellar feedback, galactic outflows, and cold streams
• Bimodality of low-redshift circumgalactic O VI in non-equilibrium EAGLE zoom simulations
• The COS-Halos Survey: Origins of the Highly Ionized Circumgalactic Medium of Star-Forming Galaxies
• The abundance, distribution, and physical nature of highly ionized oxygen OVI, OVII, and OVIII in IllustrisTNG
• On the possible environmental effect in distributing heavy elements beyond individual gaseous halos
• Gaseous Galactic Halos and QSO Absorption Line Systems
• Cold accretion flows and the nature of high column density HI absorption at redshift 3
• Understanding the shape of the halo-mass and galaxy-mass cross-correlation functions
• Not Dead Yet: Cool Circumgalactic Gas in the Halos of Early Type Galaxies
• The Gaseous Extent of Galaxies and the Origin of \lya Absorption Systems. III. Hubble Space Telescope Imaging of \lya-Absorbing Galaxies at z < 1
• The Gaseous Extent of Galaxies and the Origin of Lya Absorption Systems. V. Optical and Near-Infrared Photometry of Lya-absorbing Galaxies at z < 1
• Cooling Time, Freefall Time, and Precipitation in the Cores of ACCEPT Galaxy Clusters
• On the Physical Origin of OVI Absorption-Line Systems
• Metal-enriched, sub-kiloparsec gas clumps in the circumgalactic medium of a faint z = 2.5 galaxy
• Galactic and Circumgalactic OVI and its Impact on the Cosmological Metal and Baryon Budgets at 2<z<3.5
• Probing the IGM-Galaxy Connection at z < 0.5 I: A Galaxy Survey in QSO Fields and a Galaxy-Absorber Cross-Correlation Study
• Average spectra of massive galaxies in the SDSS
• The Atlas3D project -- XXVII. Cold Gas and the Colours and Ages of Early-type Galaxies
• A Universal Density Structure for Circum-Galactic Gas
• The circumgalactic medium of eBOSS emission line galaxies: signatures of galactic outflows in gas distribution and kinematics
• The Photon Underproduction Crisis
• Evidence for Cold Accretion: Primitive Gas Flowing onto a Galaxy at z~0.274
• Radio galaxies in the 2SLAQ Luminous Red Galaxy Survey: I. The evolution of low-power radio galaxies to z~0.7
• The multiphase circumgalactic medium traced by low metal ions in EAGLE zoom simulations
• 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
• Low-Redshift Lyman Limit Systems as Diagnostics of Cosmological Inflows and Outflows
• The extent of chemically enriched gas around star-forming dwarf galaxies
• Photon underproduction crisis: Are QSOs sufficient to resolve it?
• Dust-depletion sequences in damped Lyman-α absorbers: a unified picture from low-metallicity systems to the Galaxy
• The Metagalactic Ionizing Background: A Crisis in UV Photon Production or Incorrect Galaxy Escape Fractions?
• Column Density Profiles of Multi-Phase Gaseous Halos
• Implications of the large OVI columns around low-redshift $L_{\ast }$ galaxies
• The Clustering of MgII Absorption Systems at z=0.5 and Detection of Cold Gas in Massive Halos
• Characterizing Circumgalactic Gas around Massive Ellipticals at z ~ 0.4 I. Initial Results
• Small Scale Structure at High Redshift: IV. Low Ionization Gas Intersecting Three Lines of Sight to Q2237+0305
• Preventing Star Formation in Early-Type Galaxies with Late-Time Stellar Heating
• Probing the Cool Interstellar and Circumgalactic Gas of Three Massive Lensing Galaxies at z=0.4-0.7
• AGN proximity zone fossils and the delayed recombination of metal lines
• Low-metallicity Absorbers Account for Half of the Dense Circumgalactic Gas at z < 1
• The Nitrogen and Oxygen abundances in the neutral gas at high redshift
• The incidence of cool gas in ~ 1e13 Msun halos
• On the model of the circumgalactic mist: the implications of cloud sizes in galactic winds and halos
• Does circumgalactic OVI trace low-pressure gas beyond the accretion shock? Clues from HI and low-ion absorption, line kinematics, and dust extinction
• O VI Absorbers Tracing Hot Gas Associated with a Pair of Galaxies at z = 0.167
• Diagnosing galactic feedback with the line broadening in the low redshift Lyman-alpha forest
• Quenched Cold Accretion of a Large Scale Metal-Poor Filament due to Virial Shocking in the Halo of a Massive z=0.7 Galaxy
• The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: The Star Formation Histories of Luminous Red Galaxies
• The MgII Cross-section of Luminous Red Galaxies
• Stellar and AGN feedback in isolated early-type galaxies: the role in regulating star formation and ISM properties
• COS-Weak: Probing the CGM using analogs of weak Mg II absorbers at z < 0.3
• The Star Formation History of Luminous Red Galaxies Hosting MgII Absorbers
• The formation and physical origin of highly ionized cooling gas
• X-ray and SZ constraints on the properties of hot CGM
• Understanding the strong intervening OVI absorber at z${}_{abs}$ ~0.93 towards PG1206+459
• Characterizing circumgalactic gas around massive ellipticals at z~0.4 III. The galactic environment of a chemically-pristine Lyman limit absorber
• Gauging Metallicity of Diffuse Gas Under An Uncertain Ionizing Radiation Field
• On the radial profile of gas-phase Fe/α ratio around distant galaxies
• The Diversity of Atomic Hydrogen in Slow Rotator Early-type Galaxies
• Faint, Evolving Radio AGN in SDSS Luminous Red Galaxies
• HST Detection of Extended Neutral Hydrogen in a Massive Elliptical at z = 0.4
• Observational Diagnostics of Gas Flows: Insights from Cosmological Simulations

Cited by in corpus (108)

• De Re Metallica: The cosmic chemical evolution of galaxies
• Cool Outflows in Galaxies and their Implications
• The Origins of the Circumgalactic Medium in the FIRE Simulations
• Resolving small-scale cold circumgalactic gas in TNG50
• Properties of the Circumgalactic Medium in Cosmic Ray-Dominated Galaxy Halos
• Multiphase Gas and the Fractal Nature of Radiative Turbulent Mixing Layers
• The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Combined kinematic and thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich measurements from BOSS CMASS and LOWZ halos
• The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Modeling the Gas Thermodynamics in BOSS CMASS galaxies from Kinematic and Thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Measurements
• Baryon Cycles in the Biggest Galaxies
• The Column Density, Kinematics, and Thermal State of Metal-Bearing Gas within the Virial Radius of z~2 Star-Forming Galaxies in the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey
• Predictions for the Angular Dependence of Gas Mass Flow Rate and Metallicity in the Circumgalactic Medium
• The effect of magnetic fields on properties of the circumgalactic medium
• The Impact of Cosmic Rays on Thermal Instability in the Circumgalactic Medium
• Simulating Groups and the IntraGroup Medium: The Surprisingly Complex and Rich Middle Ground Between Clusters and Galaxies
• Project AMIGA: The Circumgalactic Medium of Andromeda
• 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
• First results from SMAUG: Uncovering the Origin of the Multiphase Circumgalactic Medium with a Comparative Analysis of Idealized and Cosmological Simulations
• A Complete Census of Circumgalactic MgII at Redshift z<~ 0.5
• Ambient Column Densities of Highly Ionized Oxygen in Precipitation-Limited Circumgalactic Media
• Relationship between the Metallicity of the Circumgalactic Medium and Galaxy Orientation
• The COS CGM Compendium. III: Metallicity and Physical Properties of the Cool Circumgalactic Medium at z<1
• On the model of the circumgalactic mist: the implications of cloud sizes in galactic winds and halos
• Chemical abundance scaling relations for multiple elements in z~2-3 star-forming galaxies
• Characterizing the abundance, properties, and kinematics of the cool circumgalactic medium of galaxies in absorption with SDSS DR16
• The Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) -- III. Physical properties and elemental abundances of Lyman limit systems at $z<1$
• The Low Redshift Circumgalactic Medium in Simba
• The Relationship Between Galaxy ISM and Circumgalactic Gas Metallicities
• Cloudy with A Chance of Rain: Accretion Braking of Cold Clouds
• 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
• Circumgalactic Pressure Profiles Indicate Precipitation-Limited Atmospheres for $M_{\ast }\sim 10^9$$-$$10^{11.5}{M}_{\odot }$
• A Comparison of Circumgalactic MgII Absorption between the TNG50 Simulation and the MEGAFLOW Survey
• Revealing the physical properties of gas accreting to haloes in the EAGLE simulations
• The radial acceleration relation in a $\Lambda$CDM universe
• 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
• Stellar prospects for FRB gravitational lensing
• 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
• The Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) IV: The Complex Multiphase Circumgalactic Medium as Revealed by Partial Lyman Limit Systems
• Figuring Out Gas & Galaxies In Enzo (FOGGIE) VI: The Circumgalactic Medium of $L^{\ast }$ Galaxies is Supported in an Emergent, Non-Hydrostatic Equilibrium
• Cool circumgalactic gas of passive galaxies from cosmological inflow
• Cloud-by-cloud, multiphase, Bayesian modeling: Application to four weak, low ionization absorbers
• 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 $z\approx 1$
• The CGM at Cosmic Noon with KCWI: Outflows from a Star-forming Galaxy at z=2.071
• Cool circumgalactic gas in galaxy clusters: connecting the DESI legacy imaging survey and SDSS DR16 MgII absorbers
• Exploring the Physical Properties of the Cool Circumgalactic Medium with a Semi-Analytic Model
• The Distribution and Evolution of Quasar Proximity Zone Sizes
• Characterizing circumgalactic gas around massive ellipticals at z~0.4 III. The galactic environment of a chemically-pristine Lyman limit absorber
• The Impact of Cosmic Rays on the Kinematics of the Circumgalactic Medium
• The CGM${}^2$ Survey: Quenching and the Transformation of the Circumgalactic Medium
• Empirical constraints on the turbulence in QSO host nebulae from velocity structure function measurements
• Figuring Out Gas & Galaxies In Enzo (FOGGIE) V: The Virial Temperature Does Not Describe Gas in a Virialized Galaxy Halo
• Clumpiness of Observed and Simulated Cold Circumgalactic Gas
• MUSE-ALMA Haloes VIII: Statistical Study of Circumgalactic Medium Gas
• A Complex Multiphase DLA Associated with a Compact Group at z=2.431 Traces Accretion, Outflows, and Tidal Streams
• A high baryon fraction in massive haloes at z~3
• Most of the cool CGM of star-forming galaxies is not produced by supernova feedback
• Directly tracing cool filamentary accretion over >100 kpc into the interstellar medium of a quasar host at z=1
• Kinematics of the OVI Circumgalactic Medium: Halo Mass Dependence and Outflow Signatures
• The Bimodal Absorption System Imaging Campaign (BASIC) I. A Dual Population of Low-metallicity Absorbers at z $<1$
• Discovery and origins of giant optical nebulae surrounding quasar PKS 0454-22
• The Impact of Type Ia Supernovae in Quiescent Galaxies: I. Formation of the Multiphase Interstellar medium
• How identifying circumgalactic gas by line-of-sight velocity instead of the location in 3D space affects O VI measurements
• The warm Gaseous Disk and the Anisotropic Circumgalactic Medium of the Milky Way
• Fountain-driven gas accretion feeding star formation over the disc of NGC 2403
• 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
• {\it HST}/COS Observations of the Warm Ionized Gaseous Halo of NGC 891
• Using cosmological simulations and synthetic absorption spectra to assess the accuracy of observationally derived CGM metallicities
• Directly constraining the spatial coherence of the $z\sim 1$ circumgalactic medium
• Evidence for galaxy quenching in the green valley caused by a lack of a circumgalactic medium
• On The Effect of Environment on Line Emission from the Circumgalactic Medium
• MUSE-ALMA Halos XI: Gas flows in the circumgalactic medium
• Probing the physicochemical properties of the Leo Ring and the Leo I group
• Clouds accreting from the IGM are not able to feed the star formation of low-redshift disc galaxies
• Inflow of low-metallicity cool gas in the halo of the Andromeda galaxy
• The Anisotropic Circumgalactic Medium of Massive Early-Type Galaxies
• Modeling Photoionized Turbulent Material in the Circumgalactic Medium II: Effect of Turbulence within a Stratified Medium
• COS Observations of the Cosmic Web: A Search for the Cooler Components of a Hot, X-ray Identified Filament
• Physical Conditions of Five O VI Absorption Systems Towards PG $1522+101$
• 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
• VV 655 and NGC 4418: Implications of an interaction for the evolution of a LIRG
• Discovery of extremely low-metallicity circumgalactic gas at $z=0.5$ toward Q0454-220
• 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
• Resolved galactic superwinds reconstructed around their host galaxies at z>3
• Transverse clues on the kpc-scale structure of the circumgalactic medium as traced by C IV absorption
• Observing the Effects of Galaxy Interactions on the Circumgalactic Medium
• A partial Lyman limit system tracing intragroup gas at $z\approx 0.8$ towards HE1003+0149
• Modeling Photoionized Turbulent Material in the Circumgalactic Medium III: Effects of Co-rotation and Magnetic Fields
• Low Mass Group Environments have no Substantial Impact on the Circumgalactic Medium Metallicity
• Baryonic Ecosystem in Galaxies (BEINGMgII) -- II. Unveiling the Nature of Galaxies Harboring Cool Gas Reservoirs
• Upper Limits on the Mass of Cool Gas in the Circumgalactic Medium of Dwarf Galaxies
• Kinematics of MgII Absorbers from the Redshift-space Distortion Around Massive Quiescent Galaxies
• The COS-Holes Survey: Connecting Galaxy Black Hole Mass with the State of the CGM
• Introducing the Descriptive Parametric Model: Gaseous Profiles for Galaxies, Groups, and Clusters
• Spatial Distribution of OVI Covering Fractions in the Simulated Circumgalactic Medium
• CGM cloud sizes from refractive FRB scattering
• CRexit: how different cosmic ray transport modes affect thermal instability in the circumgalactic medium
• 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
• MUSEQuBES: Physical conditions, origins, and multi-element abundances of the circumgalactic medium of an isolated, star-forming dwarf galaxy at z=0.57
• Identifying Circumgalactic Medium Absorption in QSO Spectra: A Bayesian Approach
• Baryonic Ecosystem IN Galaxies (BEINGMgII) -- III. Cool gas reservoirs at $0.3\le z\le 1.6$ in the Dark Energy Survey