The COS CGM Compendium. II: Metallicities of the Partial and Lyman Limit Systems at z<1

Abstract

We present the results from our COS circumgalactic medium (CGM) compendium (CCC), a survey of the CGM at z<1 using HI-selected absorbers with 15<log N(HI) <19. We focus here on 82 partial Lyman limit systems (pLLSs, 16.2<log N(HI) <17.2) and 29 LLSs (17.2<log N(HI) <19). Using Bayesian techniques and Markov-chain Monte Carlo sampling of a grid of photoionization models, we derive the posterior probability distribution functions (PDFs) for the metallicity of each absorber in CCC. We show that the combined pLLS metallicity PDF at z<1 has two main peaks at [X/H]=-1.7 and -0.4, with a strong dip at [X/H]=-1. The metallicity PDF of the LLSs might be more complicated than an unimodal or bimodal distribution. The pLLSs and LLSs probe a similar range of metallicities -3<[X/H]<+0.4, but the fraction of very metal-poor absorbers with [X/H]<-1.4 is much larger for the pLLSs than the LLSs. In contrast, absorbers with log N(HI)>19 have mostly -1<[X/H]<0 at z<1. The metal-enriched gas probed by pLLSs and LLSs confirms that galaxies that have been enriching their CGM over billions of years. Surprisingly, despite this enrichment, there is also abundant metal-poor CGM gas (41-59% of the pLLSs have [X/H]<-1.4), representing a reservoir of near-pristine gas around z<1 galaxies. We compare our empirical results to recent cosmological zoom simulations, finding some discrepancies, including an overabundance of metal-enriched CGM gas in simulations.

arXiv commentResubmitted to ApJ after the first referee report

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