New perspectives on strong z=0.5 MgII absorbers: are halo-mass and equivalent width anti-correlated?

Abstract

We measure the mean halo-mass of z=0.5 MgII absorbers using the cross-correlation (over co-moving scales 0.05-13h^{-1}Mpc) between 1806 MgII quasar absorption systems and ~250,000 Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs), both selected from the SDSS DR3. The MgII systems have rest-frame equivalent widths W_r(2796)>=0.3A. From the ratio of the MgII-LRG cross-correlation to the LRG-LRG auto-correlation, we find that the bias ratio between MgII absorbers and LRGs is 0.65+/-0.08, which implies that the absorber host-galaxies have a mean halo-mass 20-40 times smaller than that of the LRGs; the MgII absorbers have halos of mean mass <logM_h(M_sol)>=11.94+/-0.31(stat)+/-0.25(sys). We demonstrate that this statistical technique, which does not require any spectroscopic follow-up, does not suffer from contaminants such as stars or foreground and background galaxies. Finally, we find that the absorber halo-mass is anti-correlated with the equivalent width. If MgII absorbers were virialized in galaxy halos a positive M_h-W_r correlation would have been observed since W_r(2796) is a direct measure of the velocity spread of the MgII sub-components. Thus, our results demonstrate that the individual clouds of a MgII system are not virialized in the gaseous halos of the host-galaxies. We review past results in the literature on the statistics of MgII absorbers and find that they too require an M_h-W_r anti-correlation. When combined with measurements of the equivalent width distribution, the M_h-W_r anti-correlation naturally explains why absorbers with W_r(2796)>=2A are not seen at large impact parameters. We interpret the M_h-W_r anti-correlation within the starburst scenario where strong MgII absorbers are produced by supernovae-driven winds.

18 pages, 12 EPS figures, Accepted by MNRAS. Full table of MgII absorbers available at http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~mim/pub.html, minor changes to match the published text

References in corpus (3)

• An efficient technique for pre-selecting low redshift damped Lyman alpha systems
• Cross correlation of Lyman-alpha absorbers with gas-rich galaxies
• First Detection of NaI D lines in High-Redshift Damped Lyman-alpha Systems

Cited by in corpus (56)

• Ubiquitous outflows in DEEP2 spectra of star-forming galaxies at z=1.4
• Cosmic dynamics in the era of Extremely Large Telescopes
• Resolving small-scale cold circumgalactic gas in TNG50
• On the Nature of Velocity Fields in High z Galaxies
• Quasars Probing Galaxies: I. Signatures of Gas Accretion at Redshift Approximately 0.2
• Lensing, reddening and extinction effects of MgII absorbers from z=0.4 to z=2
• MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) -- II: Metal-enriched halo gas around z~1 galaxies
• The SINFONI MgII Program for Line Emitters (SIMPLE): Discovering starbursts near QSO sight-lines
• The Baryon Content of Dark Matter Halos: Empirical Constraints from MgII Absorbers
• The Role of Sub-damped Lyman-alpha Absorbers in the Cosmic Evolution of Metals
• The Clustering of MgII Absorption Systems at z=0.5 and Detection of Cold Gas in Massive Halos
• The VLT SINFONI Mg ii Program for Line Emitters (SIMPLE) II: background quasars probing z $\sim$ 1 galactic winds
• On the Halo Occupation of Dark Baryons
• Metal-enriched halo gas across galaxy overdensities over the last 10 billion years
• Characterizing the abundance, properties, and kinematics of the cool circumgalactic medium of galaxies in absorption with SDSS DR16
• Galaxy Clusters in the Line of Sight to Background Quasars: I. Survey Design and Incidence of MgII Absorbers at Cluster Redshifts
• The nature of damped Lyman alpha and sub-damped Lyman alpha absorbers
• The Co-Evolution of Galaxies and the Cool Circumgalactic Medium Probed with the SDSS and DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys
• MUSE-ALMA Halos V: Physical properties and environment of z < 1.4 HI quasar absorbers
• The connection between metallicity and metal-line kinematics in (sub-)damped Lyman-alpha systems
• New abundance determinations in z < 1.5 QSO absorbers: seven sub-DLAs and one DLA
• The cold circumgalactic medium in emission: MgII halos in TNG50
• The extent of the MgII absorbing circum-galactic medium of quasars
• The Relationship Between Galaxy ISM and Circumgalactic Gas Metallicities
• The host of GRB 060206: kinematics of a distant galaxy
• MUSEQuBES: Characterizing the circumgalactic medium of redshift $\approx 3.3$ Ly$\alpha$ emitters
• The Geometry of Cold, Metal-Enriched Gas Around Galaxies at $z\sim 1.2$
• The MUSE Extremely Deep Field: a first panoramic view of an Mg II emitting intragroup medium
• MusE GAs Flow and Wind (MEGAFLOW) VI. A study of CIV and MgII absorbing gas surrounding [OII] emitting galaxies
• MusE GAs FLOw and Wind (MEGAFLOW) IV: A two sightline tomography of a galactic wind
• On the Incidence of C IV Absorbers Along the Sightlines to Gamma-Ray Bursts
• Relationships between the HI 21-cm line strength, MgII equivalent width and metallicity in damped Lyman-alpha absorption systems
• Can gravitational infall energy lead to the observed velocity dispersion in DLAs?
• Strong Mg II and Fe II Absorbers at 2.2 < z < 6.0
• Super-Solar Metallicity in Weak Mg II Absorption Systems at z ~ 1.7
• MgII Absorbers in High Resolution Quasar Spectra. I. Voigt Profile Models
• [O II] nebular emission from Mg II absorbers: Star formation associated with the absorbing gas
• The kinematic signature of damped Lyman alpha systems: Using the D-index to screen for high column density HI absorbers
• Probing Reionization and Early Cosmic Enrichment with the MgII Forest
• The Ly$\alpha$ emission from high-$z$ galaxies hosting strong Damped Ly$\alpha$ systems
• Host Galaxies of Ultra Strong Mg II absorbers at z $\sim$ 0.5
• Linking Mg II and [O II] spatial distribution to ionizing photon escape in confirmed LyC leakers and non-leakers
• Identifying MgII Narrow Absorption Lines with Deep Learning
• Searching for MgII absorbers in and around galaxy clusters
• The relationship between gas and galaxies at z<1 using the Q0107 quasar triplet
• Towards Understanding the Mass-Metallicity relation of Quasar Absorbers: Evidence for bimodality and consequences
• Constraints on the relative sizes of intervening Mg II-absorbing clouds and quasar emitting regions
• The relation between Lyman-alpha absorbers and gas--rich galaxies in the local universe
• MusE GAs FLOw and Wind (MEGAFLOW) XII. Rationale and design of a MgII survey of the cool circum-galactic medium with MUSE and UVES: The MEGAFLOW Survey
• MusE GAs FLOw and Wind (MEGAFLOW) XIII. Cool gas traced by MgII around isolated galaxies
• Searching for cold gas traced by MgII quasar absorbers in massive X-ray-selected galaxy clusters
• A Global Census of Metals in the Universe
• Large-scale periodicity in the distribution of QSO absorption-line systems
• Ultra-strong MgII absorbers trace both inflowing and outflowing gas: insights from dual down-the-barrel and quasar sightlines
• The Vertical Structure and Asymmetry of Mg ii-enriched Gas in the Milky Way Disk
• Kinematic analysis of an Ultra-Strong MgII absorber at z~1.13 linking to Circumgalactic Gas Structures