The warm-hot intergalactic medium at z~2.2: Metal enrichment and ionization source

Abstract

Results are presented for our search for warm-hot gas towards the quasar Q 0329-385. We identify ten OVI systems of which two are within 5000 km/s of z_em and a third one should be of intrinsic origin. The seven remaining systems have HI column densities 10^13.7<N(HI)<10^15.6 cm^-2. At least ~1/3 of the individual OVI sub-systems have temperatures T<1x10^5 K and cannot originate in collisionally ionized gas. Photoionization by a hard UV background field reproduces well the ionic ratios for metallicities in the range 10^-2.5 - 10^-0.5 solar, with possibly sub-solar N/C relative abundance. For [O/C]=0, the sizes inferred for the OVI clouds are in some cases larger than the maximum extent implied by the Hubble flow. This constraint is fulfilled assuming a moderate overabundance of oxygen relative to carbon. For a soft UV ionizing spectrum, an overabundance of O/C is required, [O/C]~0.0-1.3. For a hard(soft) UV spectrum and [O/C]=0(1), the OVI regions have overdensities in 10-40.

accepted by A&A Letters, 5 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Galactic winds in the intergalactic medium
• Characterizing the Warm-Hot IGM at High Redshift: A High Resolution Survey for O VI at z = 2.5

Cited by in corpus (50)

• Metallicity of the intergalactic medium using pixel statistics. II. The distribution of metals as traced by C IV
• The First Cosmic Structures and their Effects
• The Distribution of Metallicity in the IGM at z~2.5: OVI and CIV Absorption in the Spectra of 7 QSOs
• QSO MUSEUM I: A sample of 61 extended Ly$\alpha$-emission nebulae surrounding $z\sim 3$ quasars
• New synthesis models of consistent extragalactic background light over cosmic time
• A large population of metal-rich, compact, intergalactic C IV absorbers - Evidence for poor small-scale metal mixing
• Metallicity of the intergalactic medium using pixel statistics: IV. Oxygen
• The Sources of Intergalactic Metals
• Metals in the Intergalactic Medium
• FUSE and STIS Observations of the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium towards PG1259+593
• Signatures of Galactic Superwinds: Inhomogeneous Metal Enrichment of the Lyman Alpha Forest
• Star Formation Feedback and Metal Enrichment History Of The Intergalactic Medium
• Shock-Heated Gas in the Large Scale Structure of the Universe
• Hot Halos around High Redshift Protogalaxies: Observations of O VI and N V Absorption in Damped Lyman Alpha systems
• C IV absorption in damped and sub-damped Lyman-alpha systems: correlations with metallicity and implications for galactic winds at z~2-3
• MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) -- III: The gas and galaxy environment of z = 3-4.5 quasars
• Detection of the Transverse Proximity Effect: Radiative Feedback from Bright QSOs
• Revisiting long-standing puzzles of the Milky Way: the Sun and its vicinity as typical outer disk chemical evolution
• Where are the missing cosmic metals ?
• FUV and X-ray absorption in the Warm-Hot Intergalactic Medium
• The Carbon Content of Intergalactic Gas at z=4.25 and its Evolution Toward z=2.4
• Cosmic ray driven outflows from high redshift galaxies
• Properties of QSO Metal Line Absorption Systems at High Redshifts: Nature and Evolution of the Absorbers and New Evidence on Escape of Ionizing Radiation from Galaxies
• High Metallicity, Photoionised Gas in Intergalactic Large-Scale Filaments
• Population III Generated Cosmic Rays and the Production of Li6
• Detection of hot, metal-enriched outflowing gas around $z\approx$2.3 star-forming galaxies in the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey
• Constrained semi-analytical models of Galactic outflows
• Metals in the z~3 intergalactic medium: results from an ultra-high signal-to-noise ratio UVES quasar spectrum
• Constraints on QSO emissivity using H I and He II Lyman alpha forest
• Metal-Enriched Plasma in Protogalactic Halos: A Survey of N V Absorption in High-z Damped & Sub-Damped Lyman-alpha Systems
• The Spatial Distribution of Metals in the Intergalactic Medium
• A high resolution study of intergalactic O VI absorbers at z~2.3
• High-Resolution Absorption Spectroscopy of Multi-phase, High-Metallicity Gas Associated with the Luminous Quasar HE 0226-4110
• Clues to the nature of high-redshift OVI absorption systems from their (lack of) small-scale structure
• Where are the Cosmic Metals at z~3?
• The Surprisingly Constant Strength of O VI Absorbers over Cosmic Time
• The nature of NV absorbers at high redshift
• A Search for Oxygen in the Low-Density Lyman-alpha Forest Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Spectral shape of the UV ionizing background and OVI absorbers at z ~ 1.5 towards HS0747+4259
• A Study of Quasar Proximity in O VI Absorbers at z=2-3
• Anisotropic AGN Outflows and Enrichment of the Intergalactic Medium. II. Metallicity
• Cosmic evolution of metal densities: the enrichment of the Inter-Galactic Medium
• Hunting for Metals Using XQ-100 Legacy Survey Composite Spectra
• Probing Reionization and Early Cosmic Enrichment with the MgII Forest
• Revisiting the He II to H I ratio in the Intergalactic Medium
• The Redshift Distribution of Intervening Weak MgII Quasar Absorbers and a Curious Dependence on Quasar Luminosity
• Constraining IGM enrichment and metallicity with the C IV forest correlation function
• The z = 0.0777 C III Absorber Towards PHL 1811 as a Case Study of a Low Redshift Weak Metal Line Absorber
• Quasar spectral energy distribution in EUV restored from associated absorbers: indications to the HeII opacity of the quasar accretion disk wind
• High-resolution observations of two OVI absorbers at z=2 towards PKS 1448-232