The Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS). VII. On the Warm-hot Circumgalactic Medium Probed by O vi and Ne viii at 0.4 ≲ z ≲ 0.7

oleh: Zhijie Qu, Hsiao-Wen Chen, Sean D. Johnson, Gwen C. Rudie, Fakhri S. Zahedy, David DePalma, Joop Schaye, Erin T. Boettcher, Sebastiano Cantalupo, Mandy C. Chen, Claude-André Faucher-Giguère, Jennifer I-Hsiu Li, John S. Mulchaey, Patrick Petitjean, Marc Rafelski

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: IOP Publishing 2024-01-01

Deskripsi

This paper presents a newly established sample of 103 unique galaxies or galaxy groups at 0.4 ≲ z ≲ 0.7 from the Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) for studying the warm-hot circumgalactic medium (CGM) probed by both O vi and Ne viii absorption. The galaxies and associated neighbors are identified at <1 physical Mpc from the sightlines toward 15 CUBS QSOs at z _QSO ≳ 0.8. A total of 30 galaxies or galaxy groups exhibit associated O vi λ λ 1031, 1037 doublet absorption within a line-of-sight velocity interval of ±250 km s ^−1 , while the rest show no trace of O vi to a detection limit of $\mathrm{log}{N}_{\mathrm{OVI}}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{-2}\approx 13.7$ . Meanwhile, only five galaxies or galaxy groups exhibit the Ne viii λ λ 770, 780 doublet absorption, down to a limiting column density of $\mathrm{log}{N}_{\mathrm{NeVIII}}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{-2}\approx 14.0$ . These O vi - and Ne viii -bearing halos reside in different galaxy environments with stellar masses ranging from $\mathrm{log}{M}_{\mathrm{star}}/{M}_{\odot }\approx 8$ to ≈11.5. The warm-hot CGM around galaxies of different stellar masses and star formation rates exhibits different spatial profiles and kinematics. In particular, star-forming galaxies with $\mathrm{log}{M}_{\mathrm{star}}/{M}_{\odot }\approx 9\mbox{--}11$ show a significant concentration of metal-enriched warm-hot CGM within the virial radius, while massive quiescent galaxies exhibit flatter radial profiles of both column densities and covering fractions. In addition, the velocity dispersion of O vi absorption is broad with σ _υ > 40 km s ^−1 for galaxies of $\mathrm{log}{M}_{\mathrm{star}}/{M}_{\odot }\gt 9$ within the virial radius, suggesting a more dynamic warm-hot halo around these galaxies. Finally, the warm-hot CGM probed by O vi and Ne viii is suggested to be the dominant phase in sub- L * galaxies with $\mathrm{log}{M}_{\mathrm{star}}/{M}_{\odot }\approx 9\mbox{--}10$ based on their high ionization fractions in the CGM.