Physical Sciences and Mathematics | Open Access Articles

Budget And Accounting Of Metals At Z~0: Results From The Cos-Halos Survey, Molly S. Peeples, Jessica K. Werk, Jason Tumlinson, Benjamin D. Oppenheimer, J. Xavier Prochaska, Neal S. Katz, David H. Weinberg

Neal S. Katz

We present a budget and accounting of metals in and around star-forming galaxies at z ~ 0. We combine empirically derived star formation histories with updated supernova and asymptotic giant branch yields and rates to estimate the total mass of metals produced by galaxies with present-day stellar mass of 109.3-1011.6 M☉. On the accounting side of the ledger, we show that a surprisingly constant 20%-25% mass fraction of produced metals remain in galaxies' stars, interstellar gas and interstellar dust, with little dependence of this fraction on the galaxy stellar mass (omitting those metals immediately locked up in remnants). Thus, the …

Go to article

The Photon Underproduction Crisis, Juna A. Kollmeier, David H. Weinberg, Benjamin D. Oppenheimer, Francesco Haardt, Neal S. Katz, Rameel A. Dave, Mark Fardal, Piero Madau, Charles Danforth, Amanda B. Ford, Molly S. Peeples, Joseph Mcewen

Neal S. Katz

We examine the statistics of the low-redshift Lyα forest from smoothed particle hydrodynamic simulations in light of recent improvements in the estimated evolution of the cosmic ultraviolet background (UVB) and recent observations from the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS). We find that the value of the metagalactic photoionization rate (ΓHI) required by our simulations to match the observed properties of the low-redshift Lyα forest is a factor of five larger than the value predicted by state-of-the art models for the evolution of this quantity. This mismatch in ΓHI results in the mean flux decrement of the Lyα forest being overpredicted by …

Go to article

The Cos-Halos Survey: Physical Conditions And Baryonic Mass In The Low-Redshift Circumgalactic Medium, Jessica K. Werk, J. Xavier Prochaska, Jason Tumlinson, Molly S. Peeples, Todd M. Tripp, Andrew J. Fox, Nicolas Lehner, Christopher Thom, John M. O'Meara, Amanda Brady Ford, Rongmon Bordoloi, Neal S. Katz, Nicolas Tejos, Benjamin D. Oppenheimer, Romeel Dave, David H. Weinberg

Neal S. Katz

We analyze the physical conditions of the cool, photoionized (T ~104 K) circumgalactic medium (CGM) using the COS-Halos suite of gas column density measurements for 44 gaseous halos within 160 kpc of L ~ L* galaxies at z ~ 0.2. These data are well described by simple photoionization models, with the gas highly ionized (n H II /n H gsim 99%) by the extragalactic ultraviolet background. Scaling by estimates for the virial radius, R vir, we show that the ionization state (tracked by the dimensionless ionization parameter, U) increases with distance from the host galaxy. The ionization parameters imply a …

Go to article

The Cos-Dwarfs Survey: The Carbon Reservoir Around Sub-L Galaxies, Rongmon Bordoloi, Jason Tumlinson, Jessica K. Werk, Benjamin D. Oppenheimer, Molly S. Peeples, J. Xavier Prochaska, Todd M. Tripp, Neal S. Katz, Romeel Dave, Andrew J. Fox, Christopher Thom, Amanda Brady Ford, David H. Weinberg, Joseph N. Burchett, Juna A. Kollmeier

Neal S. Katz

We report new observations of circumgalactic gas from the COS-Dwarfs survey, a systematic investigation of the gaseous halos around 43 low-mass z ≤ 0.1 galaxies using background QSOs observed with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. From the projected one-dimensional and two-dimensional distribution of C iv absorption, we find that C iv is detected out to ≈100 kpc (corresponding roughly to ≈0.5 Rvir) of the host galaxies. The C iv absorption strength falls off radially as a power law, and beyond ≈0.5 Rvir, no C iv absorption is detected above our sensitivity limit of ≈50–100 mÅ. We find a tentative correlation between …

Go to article

The Cos-Halos Survey: Rationale, Design, And A Census Of Circumgalactic Neutral Hydrogen, Jason Tumlinson, Christopher Thom, Jessica K. Werk, J. Xavier Prochaska, Todd M. Tripp, Neal S. Katz, Romeel Dave, Benjamin D. Oppenheimer, Joseph D. Meiring, Amanda Brady Ford, John M. O'Meara, Molly S. Peeples, Kenneth R. Sembach, David H. Weinberg

Neal S. Katz

We present the design and methods of the COS-Halos survey, a systematic investigation of the gaseous halos of 44 z = 0.15-0.35 galaxies using background QSOs observed with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space Telescope. This survey has yielded 39 spectra of z em sime 0.5 QSOs with S/N ~10-15 per resolution element. The QSO sightlines pass within 150 physical kpc of the galaxies, which span early and late types over stellar mass log M */M ☉ = 9.5-11.5. We find that the circumgalactic medium exhibits strong H I, averaging sime 1 Å in Lyα equivalent width out …

Go to article

The High-Ion Content And Kinematics Of Low-Redshift Lyman Limit Systems, Andrew J. Fox, Nicolas Lehner, Jason Tumlinson, J. Christopher Howk, Todd M. Tripp, J. Xavier Prochaska, John M. O'Meara, Jessica K. Werk, Rognmon Bordoloi, Neal S. Katz, Benjamin D. Oppenheimer, Romeel Dave

Neal S. Katz

We study the high-ion content and kinematics of the circumgalactic medium around low-redshift galaxies using a sample of 23 Lyman limit systems (LLSs) at 0.08 < z < 0.93 observed with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telescope. In Lehner et al., we recently showed that low-z LLSs have a bimodal metallicity distribution. Here we extend that analysis to search for differences between the high-ion and kinematic properties of the metal-poor and metal-rich branches. We find that metal-rich LLSs tend to show higher O VI columns and broader O VI profiles than metal-poor LLSs. The total H I line width (Δv 90 statistic) in LLSs is not correlated with metallicity, indicating that the H I kinematics alone cannot be used to distinguish inflow from outflow and gas recycling. Among the 17 LLSs with O VI detections, all but two show evidence of kinematic sub-structure, in the form of O VI-H I centroid offsets, multiple components, or both. Using various scenarios for how the metallicities in the high-ion and low-ion phases of each LLS compare, we constrain the ionized hydrogen column in the O VI phase to lie in the range log N(H II) ~ 17.6-20. The O VI phase of LLSs is a substantial baryon reservoir, with M(high-ion) ~ 108.5-10.9 (r/150 kpc)2 M ☉, similar to the mass in the low-ion phase. Accounting for the O VI phase approximately doubles the contribution of low-z LLSs to the cosmic baryon budget.

Go to article

On The Stellar Populations And Evolution Of Star-Forming Galaxies At 6.3 < Z < 8.6, Steven L. Finkelstein, Casey Papovich, Mauro Giavalisco, Naveen A. Reddy, Henry C. Ferguson, Anton M. Koekemoer, Mark Dickinson

Mauro Giavalisco

We study the physical characteristics of galaxies at 6.3 < z < 8.6, selected from deep near-infrared imaging with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on board the Hubble Space Telescope. Accounting for the photometric scatter using simulations, galaxies at z ~ 7 have bluer UV colors compared to typical local starburst galaxies at > 4 sigma confidence. Although these colors necessitate young ages (<100 Myr), low or zero dust attenuation, and low metallicities, these are explicable by normal (albeit unreddened) stellar populations, with no evidence for near-zero metallicities and/or top-heavy initial mass functions. The age of the Universe at these redshifts limits the amount of stellar mass in late-type populations, and the WFC3 photometry implies galaxy stellar masses ~ 10^8 - 10^9 Msol for Salpeter initial mass functions to a limiting magnitude of M_1500 ~ -18. The masses of ``characteristic'' (L*) z > 7 galaxies are smaller than those of L* Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) at lower redshifts, and are comparable to less evolved galaxies selected on the basis of their Lyman alpha emission at 3 < z < 6, implying that the 6.3 < z < 8.6 galaxies are the progenitors of more evolved galaxies at lower redshifts. We estimate that Lyman alpha emission is able to contribute to the observed WFC3 colors of galaxies at these redshifts, with an estimated typical line flux of ~ 10^-18 erg s^-1 cm^-2, roughly a factor of four below currently planned surveys. The integrated UV specific luminosity for the detected galaxies at z ~ 7 and z ~ 8 is within factors of a few of that required to reionize the IGM assuming low clumping factors, implying that in order to reionize the Universe galaxies at these redshifts have a high ( ~ 50%) escape fraction of Lyman continuum photons, possibly substantiated by the very blue colors of this population.

Go to article

Discovery Of A Primitive Damped Lyman Alpha Absorber Near An X-Ray Bright Galaxy Group In The Virgo Cluster, Todd M. Tripp, Edward B. Jenkins, David V. Bowen, Jason X. Prochaska, Bastien Aracil, Rajib Ganguly

Todd M. Tripp

We report the discovery of a low-redshift, sub-damped Ly_ absorber (DLA) in the outer periphery of the Virgo cluster near the X-ray bright NGC4261 galaxy group, in the direction of PG1216+069. We have obtained a new spectrum of PG1216+069 (zQSO = 0.3313) with the E140M echelle mode of the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), and this spectrum reveals damped Ly_ absorption as well as O I, C II, Si II, and Fe II absorption lines at zabs = 0.00632. Notably, the absorber shows no evidence of highly-ionized gas: Si IV, C IV, and O VI are not signi_cantly detected at …

Go to article

The O Vi Absorbers Toward Pg 0953+415: High-Metallicity, Cosmic-Web Gas Far From Luminous Galaxies, Todd M. Tripp, Bastien Aracil, David V. Bowen, Edward B. Jenkins

Todd M. Tripp

The spectrum of the low-redshift QSO PG0953+415 shows two strong, intervening O VI absorption systems. To study the nature of these absorbers, we have used the Gemini Multiobject Spectrograph to conduct a deep spectroscopic galaxy redshift survey in the 5' x 5' field centered on the QSO. This survey is fully complete for r' < 19.7 and is 73% complete for r' < 21.0. We find three galaxies at the redshift of the higher-z O VI system (z = 0.14232) including a galaxy at projected distance rho = 155 kpc. We find no galaxies in the Gemini field at the redshift of the lower-z O VI absorber (z = 0.06807), which indicates that the nearest galaxy is more than 195 kpc away or has L < 0.04 L*. Previous shallower surveys covering a larger field have shown that the z = 0.06807 O VI absorber is affiliated with a group/filament of galaxies, but the nearest known galaxy has rho = 736 kpc. The z = 0.06807 absorber is notable for several reasons. The absorption profiles reveal simple kinematics indicative of quiescent material. The H I line widths and good alignment of the H I and metal lines favor photoionization and, moreover, the column density ratios imply a high metallicity: [M/H] = -0.3 +/- 0.12. The z = 0.14232 O VI system is more complex and less constrained but also indicates a relatively high metallicity. Using galaxy redshifts from SDSS, we show that both of the PG0953+415 O VI absorbers are located in large-scale filaments of the cosmic web. Evidently, some regions of the web filaments are highly metal enriched. We discuss the origin of the high-metallicity gas and suggest that the enrichment might have occurred long ago (at high z).

Go to article

Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Budget And Accounting Of Metals At Z~0: Results From The Cos-Halos Survey, Molly S. Peeples, Jessica K. Werk, Jason Tumlinson, Benjamin D. Oppenheimer, J. Xavier Prochaska, Neal S. Katz, David H. Weinberg

Neal S. Katz

The Photon Underproduction Crisis, Juna A. Kollmeier, David H. Weinberg, Benjamin D. Oppenheimer, Francesco Haardt, Neal S. Katz, Rameel A. Dave, Mark Fardal, Piero Madau, Charles Danforth, Amanda B. Ford, Molly S. Peeples, Joseph Mcewen

Neal S. Katz

Neal S. Katz

Neal S. Katz

Neal S. Katz

The High-Ion Content And Kinematics Of Low-Redshift Lyman Limit Systems, Andrew J. Fox, Nicolas Lehner, Jason Tumlinson, J. Christopher Howk, Todd M. Tripp, J. Xavier Prochaska, John M. O'Meara, Jessica K. Werk, Rognmon Bordoloi, Neal S. Katz, Benjamin D. Oppenheimer, Romeel Dave

Neal S. Katz

On The Stellar Populations And Evolution Of Star-Forming Galaxies At 6.3 < Z < 8.6, Steven L. Finkelstein, Casey Papovich, Mauro Giavalisco, Naveen A. Reddy, Henry C. Ferguson, Anton M. Koekemoer, Mark Dickinson

Mauro Giavalisco

Discovery Of A Primitive Damped Lyman Alpha Absorber Near An X-Ray Bright Galaxy Group In The Virgo Cluster, Todd M. Tripp, Edward B. Jenkins, David V. Bowen, Jason X. Prochaska, Bastien Aracil, Rajib Ganguly

Todd M. Tripp

The O Vi Absorbers Toward Pg 0953+415: High-Metallicity, Cosmic-Web Gas Far From Luminous Galaxies, Todd M. Tripp, Bastien Aracil, David V. Bowen, Edward B. Jenkins

Todd M. Tripp