On the detectability of visible-wavelength line emission from the local circumgalactic and intergalactic medium

Abstract

We describe a new approach to studying the intergalactic and circumgalactic medium in the local Universe: direct detection through narrow-band imaging of ultra-low surface brightness visible-wavelength line emission. We use the hydrodynamical cosmological simulation EAGLE to investigate the expected brightness of this emission at low redshift ($z$ $\lesssim$ 0.2). H$\alpha$ emission in extended halos (analogous to the extended Ly$\alpha$ halos/blobs detected around galaxies at high redshifts) has a surface brightness of $\gtrsim 700$ photons cm${}^{-2}$ sr${}^{-1}$ s${}^{-1}$ out to $\sim$100 kpc. Mock observations show that the Dragonfly Telephoto Array, equipped with state-of-the-art narrow-band filters, could directly image these structures in exposure times of $\sim$10 hours. H$\alpha$ fluorescence emission from this gas can be used to place strong constraints on the local ultra-violet background, and on gas flows around galaxies. Detecting H$\alpha$ emission from the diffuse intergalactic medium (the "cosmic web") is beyond current capabilities, but would be possible with a hypothetical 1000-lens Dragonfly array.

arXiv comment18 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (84)

• The cosmological simulation code GADGET-2
• The EAGLE project: Simulating the evolution and assembly of galaxies and their environments
• Star Formation in the Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies
• The observed properties of dwarf galaxies in and around the Local Group
• Planck 2013 results. I. Overview of products and scientific results
• Cold streams in early massive hot haloes as the main mode of galaxy formation
• The EAGLE simulations of galaxy formation: calibration of subgrid physics and model variations
• Radiative transfer in a clumpy universe: IV. New synthesis models of the cosmic UV/X-ray background
• The Circumgalactic Medium
• The 'Forbidden' Abundance of Oxygen in the Sun
• The effect of photo-ionization on the cooling rates of enriched, astrophysical plasmas
• The MUSE second-generation VLT instrument
• The physics driving the cosmic star formation history
• Galaxies in a simulated $\Lambda$CDM Universe I: cold mode and hot cores
• A New Calculation of the Ionizing Background Spectrum and the Effects of HeII Reionization
• On the relation between the Schmidt and Kennicutt-Schmidt star formation laws and its implications for numerical simulations
• Star formation thresholds and galaxy edges: why and where
• The COS-Halos Survey: Physical Conditions and Baryonic Mass in the Low-Redshift Circumgalactic Medium
• Simulating galactic outflows with thermal supernova feedback
• The Baryon Census in a Multiphase Intergalactic Medium: 30% of the Baryons May Still Be Missing
• On the evolution of the HI column density distribution in cosmological simulations
• The EAGLE simulations of galaxy formation: public release of halo and galaxy catalogues
• An H-alpha Imaging Survey of Galaxies in the Local 11 Mpc Volume
• A Reappraisal of the Solar Photospheric C/O Ratio
• The COS-Halos Survey: An Empirical Description of the Metal-Line Absorption in the Low-Redshift Circumgalactic Medium
• Diffuse Lyman Alpha Emitting Halos: A Generic Property of High Redshift Star Forming Galaxies
• The Evolution of the Intergalactic Medium
• The cold gaseous halo of NGC 891
• The rates and modes of gas accretion on to galaxies and their gaseous haloes
• Observations of the MIssing Baryons in the warm-hot intergalactic medium
• Ubiquitous giant Ly $\alpha$ nebulae around the brightest quasars at $z\sim 3.5$ revealed with MUSE
• Extended Lyman alpha haloes around individual high-redshift galaxies revealed by MUSE
• Lyman Alpha Emitting Galaxies as a Probe of Reionization
• The COS-Halos Survey: Metallicities in the Low-Redshift Circumgalactic Medium
• The impact of angular momentum on black hole accretion rates in simulations of galaxy formation
• Characterizing the Circumgalactic Medium of Nearby Galaxies with HST/COS and HST/STIS Absorption-Line Spectroscopy
• The Keck Cosmic Web Imager Integral Field Spectrograph
• A Population of Faint Extended Line Emitters and the Host Galaxies of Optically Thick QSO Absorption Systems
• Ultra Low Surface Brightness Imaging with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array
• Lyman-alpha Cooling Emission from Galaxy Formation
• The Survey for Ionization in Neutral Gas Galaxies: I. Description and Initial Results
• The Westerbork Hydrogen Accretion in Local Galaxies (HALOGAS) Survey I. Survey Description and Pilot Observations
• An HST/COS Survey of the Low-Redshift IGM. I. Survey, Methodology, & Overall Results
• Diffuse Lyman-alpha Halos around Galaxies at z=2.2-6.6: Implications for Galaxy Formation and Cosmic Reionization
• Nearly all the sky is covered by Lyman-alpha emission around high redshift galaxies
• NGC 300: an extremely faint, outer stellar disk observed to 10 scale lengths
• 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
• Diffuse Lyman Alpha Haloes around Lyman Alpha Emitters at z=3: Do Dark Matter Distributions Determine the Lyman Alpha Spatial Extents?
• LA Palma Night-Sky Brightness
• Through Thick and Thin - HI Absorption in Cosmological Simulations
• Imaging the Lyman-alpha Forest
• IGM Emission Observations with the Cosmic Web Imager: I. The Circum-QSO Medium of QSO 1549+19, and Evidence for a Filamentary Gas Inflow
• An HST/COS legacy survey of high-velocity ultraviolet absorption in the Milky Way's circumgalactic medium and the Local Group
• The drop in the cosmic star formation rate below redshift 2 is caused by a change in the mode of gas accretion and by AGN feedback
• Inspiraling Halo Accretion Mapped in Lyman-$\alpha$ Emission around a $z\sim 3$ Quasar
• Low-ionization Line Emission from Starburst Galaxies: A New Probe of Galactic-Scale Outflows
• The impact of local stellar radiation on the HI column density distribution
• The Gas Consumption History to z ~ 4
• Scattered Emission from z~1 Galactic Outflows
• Statistical Properties of Diffuse Lyman-alpha Halos around Star-forming Galaxies at z~2
• Morphological evolution of galaxies from ultradeep HST WFC3 imaging: the Hubble sequence at z~2
• Characterizing the Circumgalactic Medium of Nearby Galaxies with HST/COS and HST/STIS Absorption-Line Spectroscopy: II. Methods and Models
• Giant galaxy growing from recycled gas: ALMA maps the circumgalactic molecular medium of the Spiderweb in [CI]
• IGM Emission Observations with the Cosmic Web Imager: II. Discovery of Extended, Kinematically-Linked Emission around SSA22 Lyman-alpha Blob 2
• Large-scale clustering of Lyman-alpha emission intensity from SDSS/BOSS
• Keck/Palomar Cosmic Web Imagers (KCWI/PCWI) Reveal an Enormous Ly$\alpha$ Nebula in an Extremely Overdense QSO Pair Field at $z=2.45$
• A measurement of the z = 0 UV background from H$\alpha$ fluorescence
• Metal-line emission from the warm-hot intergalactic medium: I. Soft X-rays
• Halpha Imaging of the Herschel Reference Survey. The star formation properties of a volume-limited, K-band-selected sample of nearby late-type galaxies
• Halpha3: Halpha imaging survey of HI selected galaxies from ALFALFA
• Metal-Absorption Column Densities in Fast Radiative Shocks
• Dark Galaxy Candidates at Redshift ~3.5 Detected with MUSE
• Numerical simulations of the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium
• Metal-line emission from the warm-hot intergalactic medium: II. Ultraviolet
• Soft X-ray and ultra-violet metal-line emission from the gas around galaxies
• A GBT Survey of the HALOGAS Galaxies and Their Environments I: Revealing the full extent of HI around NGC891, NGC925, NGC4414 & NGC4565
• Rest-frame UV line emission from the intergalactic medium at 2<z<5
• How the diffuse Universe cools
• The dragonfly nearby galaxies survey. Iv. A giant stellar disk in ngc 2841
• A Deeper Look at Faint H$\alpha$ Emission in Nearby Dwarf Galaxies
• The Detection of Intergalactic Halpha Emission from the Slug Nebula at z~2.3
• Attack of the Flying Snakes : Formation of Isolated HI Clouds By Fragmentation of Long Streams
• Tracing dense and diffuse neutral hydrogen in the halo of the Milky Way

Cited by in corpus (11)

• The cold circumgalactic medium in emission: MgII halos in TNG50
• Metal line emission from galaxy haloes at z~1
• Revealing the physical properties of gas accreting to haloes in the EAGLE simulations
• Emission from the circumgalactic medium: from cosmological zoom-in simulations to multiwavelength observables
• A giant shell of ionized gas discovered near M82 with the Dragonfly Spectral Line Mapper pathfinder
• A Nascent Tidal Dwarf Galaxy Forming within the Northern HI Streamer of M82
• A galactic outflow traced by its extended Mg II emission out to a $\sim 30$ kpc radius in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field with MUSE
• Absorption-based Circumgalactic Medium Line Emission Estimates
• The pathfinder Dragonfly Spectral Line Mapper: Pushing the limits for ultra-low surface brightness spectroscopy
• Imaging reionization's last phases with I-front Lyman-$\alpha$ emissions
• Wide-field ultra-narrow-bandpass imaging with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array