Discovery of Weak O VI Absorption in Underdense Regions of the Low-Redshift Intergalactic Medium

Abstract

We search for weak O VI absorption in the low-redshift intergalactic medium (IGM) using 82 high signal-to-noise quasar spectra from the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. From this dataset we compile a clean sample of 396 intervening Lyman-alpha (Lya) lines with H I column densities log N (HI))< 14.5 and no individual O VI detections. Stacking at the location of the O VI doublet reveals absorption at $>5\sigma$ significance, with equivalent width of 1.7 $\pm$ 0.3 mA, corresponding to log N (O VI) = 12.14 $\pm$ 0.08. The stacked O VI signal associated with strong Lya (13.5 <= log N (HI) < 14.5) absorbers is significantly stronger than that associated with weaker Lya (12.5 <= log N (HI) < 13.5) absorbers. For the subset of 81 broad Lya absorbers (BLAs; b(HI) > 45 km/s), we obtain a marginal $\sim 4\sigma$ O VI detection. Other than Si III, detected at 5$\sigma$, no metal lines are found. Cross-correlation with galaxies shows that 93% of Lya absorbers lack an associated bright galaxy ($>3L^{\ast }$) within 1~Mpc. A more complete low-redshift ($z<0.25$) search shows 66% Lya lack galaxies down to $L^{\ast }$. This suggests the O VI arises mainly from the diffuse IGM, not the circumgalactic medium. The stacked O VI signal suggests characteristic metallicities of $\approx 0.01Z_{\odot }$ under photoionisation and $\approx 0.001Z_{\odot }$ under collisional ionisation, though these estimates are model-dependent and assume O VI and H I trace the same phase. This study provides the first observational evidence for metal absorption in low-column-density Lya systems that individually show no detectable metals, placing important constraints on metal enrichment of the underdense IGM.

Accepted for publication in ApJ