Circumgalactic Ly$\alpha$ Nebulae in Overdense Quasar Pair Regions Observed with the Palomar Cosmic Web Imager

Abstract

The recent discovery of enormous Ly$\alpha$ nebulae (ELANe), characterized by physical extents $>200$ kpc and Ly$\alpha$ luminosities $>10^{44}$ erg s${}^{-1}$, provide a unique opportunity to study the intergalactic and circumgalactic medium (IGM/CGM) in distant galaxies. Many existing ELANe detections are associated with local overdensities of active galactic nuclei (AGN). We have initiated a search for ELANe around regions containing pairs of quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) using the Palomar Cosmic Web Imager (PCWI). The first study of this search, Cai et al., presented results of ELAN0101+0201 which was associated with a QSO pair at $z=2.45$. In this study, all targets residing in QSO pair environments analyzed have Ly$\alpha$ detections, but only one of the four targets meets the classification criteria of an ELANe associated with a QSO pair region (z$\sim 2.87$). The other three sample detections of Ly$\alpha$ nebulae do not meet the size and luminosity criteria to be classified as ELANe. We find kinematic evidence that the ELANe J1613, is possibly powered {mostly by AGN outflows.} The analysis of circularly-averaged surface brightness profiles of emission from the Ly$\alpha$ regions show that the {Ly$\alpha$ emission around $z\sim 2$ QSO pairs is consistent with emission around individual QSOs at $z\sim 2$, which is fainter than that around $z\sim 3$ QSOs. A larger sample of Ly$\alpha$ at z$\sim$2 will be needed to determine if there is evidence of redshift evolution when compared to nebular emissions at z$\sim$3 from other studies.

References in corpus (17)

• The MAPPINGS III Library of Fast Radiative Shock Models
• Kiloparsec-scale outflows are prevalent among luminous AGN: outflows and feedback in the context of the overall AGN population
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Quasar Catalog: twelfth data release
• The first ultraviolet quasar stacked spectrum at z=2.4 from WFC3
• Quasar Quartet Embedded in Giant Nebula Reveals Rare Massive Structure in Distant Universe
• Observations of the Lyman-$\alpha$ Universe
• Evolution of the Cool Gas in the Circumgalactic Medium (CGM) of Massive Halos -- A Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) Survey of Ly$\alpha$ Emission around QSOs at $z\approx 2$
• The large and small scale properties of the intergalactic gas in the Slug Ly-alpha nebula revealed by MUSE HeII emission observations
• Inspiraling Halo Accretion Mapped in Lyman-$\alpha$ Emission around a $z\sim 3$ Quasar
• The REQUIEM Survey I: A Search for Extended Ly-Alpha Nebular Emission Around 31 z>5.7 Quasars
• The Rest-Frame Optical Spectroscopic Properties of Ly$\alpha$-Emitters at $z\sim 2.5$: The Physical Origins of Strong Ly$\alpha$ Emission
• Observing the End of Cold Flow Accretion using Halo Absorption Systems
• EVLA Observations of Galactic Supernova Remnants: Wide-field Continuum and Spectral-index Imaging
• A Deep Narrowband Imaging Search for CIV and He II Emission from Ly$\alpha$ Blobs
• ALMA observations of Lyman-alpha Blob 1: halo sub-structure illuminated from within
• A Lyα blob and zabs {\approx} zem damped Lyα absorber in the dark matter halo of the binary quasar Q 0151+048
• CWITools: A Python3 Data Analysis Pipeline for the Cosmic Web Imager Instruments

Cited by in corpus (3)

• QSO MUSEUM II: Search for extended Ly$\alpha$ emission around eight $z\sim 3$ quasar pairs
• Prospects for detecting cosmic filaments in Lyman-alpha emission across redshifts $z=2-5$
• J-PAS: Discovery of RaJav, a bright spatially extended Ly$\alpha$ Nebula at z=2.25