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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

The AGORA High-resolution Galaxy Simulations Comparison Project. VI. Similarities and Differences in the Circumgalactic Medium

Abstract We analyze the circumgalactic medium (CGM) for eight commonly-used cosmological codes in the AGORA collaboration. The codes are calibrated to use identical initial conditions, cosmology, heating and cooling, and star formation thresholds, but each evolves with its own unique code architecture and stellar feedback implementation. Here, we analyze the results of these simulations in terms of the structure, composition, and phase dynamics of the CGM. We show properties such as metal distribution, ionization levels, and kinematics are effective tracers of the effects of the different code feedback and implementation methods, and as such they can be highly divergent between simulations. This is merely a fiducial set of models, against which we will in the future compare multiple feedback recipes for each code. Nevertheless, we find that the large parameter space these simulations establish can help disentangle the different variables that affect observable quantities in the CGM, e.g., showing that abundances for ions with higher ionization energy are more strongly determined by the simulation’s metallicity, while abundances for ions with lower ionization energy are more strongly determined by the gas density and temperature.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Probing the Impact of Radio-mode Feedback on the Properties of the Cool Circumgalactic Medium

We explore the influence of radio-mode feedback on the properties of the cool circumgalactic medium (CGM). To this end, we assemble a statistical sample of approximately 30,000 radio galaxies with background quasars by combining optical spectroscopic measurements of luminous red galaxies and quasars from the year 1 data set of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument and radio sources from the LOw-Frequency ARray Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) DR2 catalog and the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS) quick-look catalog. Galaxies with similar optical properties but with no radio counterparts in LoTSS and VLASS are selected as the control group. We measure the cool CGM properties of radio galaxies and their control samples traced by Mg ii absorption lines, including covering fraction, rest equivalent width, and gas kinematics. Our results show no significant difference in the properties of gas around radio galaxies and their control sample, indicating that the operating radio-mode feedback of massive galaxies does not produce detectable effects on the properties of the cool CGM. Finally, we show that the CGM of radio galaxies contains a nonnegligible amount of cool gas with approximately 10 10 M ⊙ . This abundance can place a stringent constraint on the radio-mode feedback models.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Figuring Out Gas & Galaxies in Enzo (FOGGIE). VI. The Circumgalactic Medium of L * Galaxies Is Supported in an Emergent, Nonhydrostatic Equilibrium

The circumgalactic medium (CGM) is often assumed to exist in or near hydrostatic equilibrium, with the regulation of accretion and the effects of feedback treated as perturbations to a stable balance between gravity and thermal pressure. We investigate global hydrostatic equilibrium in the CGM using four highly resolved L* galaxies from the Figuring Out Gas & Galaxies in Enzo (FOGGIE) project. The FOGGIE simulations were specifically targeted at fine spatial and mass resolution in the CGM (Δx ≲ 1 kpc h –1 and M ≃ 200M ⊙ ). We develop a new analysis framework that calculates the forces provided by thermal pressure gradients, turbulent pressure gradients, ram pressure gradients of large-scale radial bulk flows, centrifugal rotation, and gravity acting on the gas in the CGM. Thermal and turbulent pressure gradients vary strongly on scales of ≲5 kpc throughout the CGM. Thermal pressure gradients provide the main supporting force only beyond ~0.25R 200 , or ~50 kpc at z = 0. Within ~0.25R 200 , turbulent pressure gradients and rotational support provide stronger forces than thermal pressure. More generally, we find that global equilibrium models are neither appropriate nor predictive for the small scales probed by absorption line observations of the CGM. Local conditions generally cannot be derived by assuming a global equilibrium, but an emergent global equilibrium balancing radially inward and outward forces is obtained when averaging over the nonequilibrium local conditions on large scales in space and time. Approximate hydrostatic equilibrium holds only at large distances from galaxies, even when averaging out small-scale variations.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

A MUSE source-blind survey for emission from the circumgalactic medium

The recent detection of optical emission lines from the circumgalactic medium (CGM) in combined, large samples of low-redshift, normal galaxy spectra hints at the potential to map the cool (∼10 4 kelvin) CGM in individual, representative galaxies. Using archival data from a forefront instrument (MUSE) on the VLT, we present a source-blind, wide-redshift-range (z∼ 0 to 5) narrowband imaging survey for CGM emission. Our detected, resolved emission line sources are cataloged and include a 30-kiloparsec-wide Hα source likely tracing the CGM of a low-mass galaxy (stellar mass ∼ 10 8.78±0.42 solar mass) atz= 0.1723, a 60-kiloparsec-wide Ly α structure associated with a galaxy atz= 3.9076, and a 130-kiloparsec (∼r vir )–wide [O II] feature revealing an interaction between a galaxy pair atz= 1.2480. The Hα velocity field for the low-mass galaxy suggests that the CGM is more chaotic or turbulent than the galaxy disk, while that for the interacting galaxies shows large-scale (∼50 kiloparsec) coherent motions.

Science & Technology - Other Topics↗
DOE OSTI2020

Constraining magnetic fields in the circumgalactic medium

ABSTRACT We study the properties of magnetic fields in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of z < 1 galaxies by correlating Faraday rotation measures (RMs) of ∼1000 high-redshift radio sources with the foreground galaxy number density estimated from the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys. This method enables us to extract signals of RMs contributed by intervening gas around multiple galaxies. Our results show that there is no detectable correlation between the distribution of RMs and the number of foreground galaxies, contrary to several previous results. Utilizing the non-detection signals, we estimate 3σ upper limits to the RMs from the CGM of $\sim \!20 \rm \ rad\, m^{-2}$ within 50 kpc and $\sim \!10 \rm \ rad \, m^{-2}$ at separations of 100 kpc. By adopting a column density distribution of ionized gas obtained from absorption-line measurements, we further estimate the strengths of coherent magnetic fields parallel to the line of sight of $\lt \rm 2 \ \mu G$ in the CGM. We show that the estimated upper limits of RMs and magnetic field strengths are sufficient to constrain outputs of recent galaxy magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Finally, we discuss possible causes for the inconsistency between our results and previous works.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Low-mass Group Environments Have No Substantial Impact on the Circumgalactic Medium Metallicity

We explore how environment affects the metallicity of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) using 13 low-mass galaxy groups (two to five galaxies) at &lang;z{sub abs}&rang;=0.25 identified near background quasars. Using quasar spectra from the Hubble Space Telescope/COS and from Keck/HIRES or the Very Large Telescope/UVES, we measure column densities of or determine limits on CGM absorption lines. We use a Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach with Cloudy to estimate metallicities of cool (T ~ 10{sup 4} K) CGM gas within groups and compare them to CGM metallicities of 47 isolated galaxies. Both group and isolated CGM metallicities span a wide range (-2 < [Si/H] < 0), where the mean group (-0.54 ± 0.22) and isolated (-0.77 ± 0.14) CGM metallicities are similar. Group and isolated environments have similar distributions of H I column densities as a function of impact parameter. However, contrary to isolated galaxies, we do not find an anticorrelation between H I column density and the nearest group galaxy impact parameter. We additionally divided the groups by member luminosity ratios (i.e., galaxy–galaxy and galaxy–dwarf groups). While there was no significant difference in their mean metallicities, a modest increase in sample size should allow one to statistically identify a higher CGM metallicity in galaxy–dwarf groups compared to galaxy–galaxy groups. We conclude that either environmental effects have not played an important role in the metallicity of the CGM at this stage and expect that this may only occur when galaxies are strongly interacting or merging or that some isolated galaxies have higher CGM metallicities due to past interactions. Thus, environment does not seem to be the cause of the CGM metallicity bimodality.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

The Multi-Phase Circumgalactic Medium of DESI Emission-Line Galaxies at z~1.5

We study the multi-phase circumgalactic medium (CGM) of emission line galaxies (ELGs) at $z\sim1.5$, traced by MgII$\lambda2796$, $\lambda2803$ and CIV$\lambda1548$, $\lambda1550$ absorption lines, using approximately 7,000 ELG-quasar pairs from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. Our results show that both the mean rest equivalent width ($W_{0}$) profiles and covering fractions of MgII and CIV increase with ELG stellar mass at similar impact parameters, but show similar distributions when normalized by the virial radius. Moreover, warm CIV gas has a more extended distribution than cool MgII gas. The dispersion of MgII and CIV gas velocity offsets relative to the galaxy redshifts rises from $\sim100 \, \rm km \, s^{-1}$ within halos to $\sim 200 \, \rm km \, s^{-1}$ beyond. We explore the relationships between MgII and CIV $W_{0}$ and show that the two are not tightly coupled: at a fixed absorption strength of one species, the other varies by several-fold, indicating distinct kinematics between the gas phases traced by each. We measure the line ratios, FeII/MgII and CIV/MgII, of strong MgII absorbers and find that at $<0.2$ virial radius, the FeII/MgII ratio is elevated, while the CIV/MgII ratio is suppressed compared with the measurements on larger scales, both with $\sim4-5\, σ$ significance. We argue that multiphase gas that is not co-spatial is required to explain the observational results. Finally, by combining with measurements from the literature, we investigate the redshift evolution of CGM properties and estimate the neutral hydrogen, metal, and dust masses in the CGM of DESI ELGs -- found to be comparable to those in the ISM.

Lan, Ting-Wen [Taiwan, Natl. Taiwan U.; Academia S↗
DOE OSTI2025

Tracing the Cosmic Evolution of the Cool Circumgalactic Medium of Luminous Red Galaxies with DESI Year 1 Data

We investigate the properties of the cool circumgalactic medium (CGM) of massive galaxies and their cosmic evolution. By using the year 1 dataset of luminous red galaxies (LRGs) and QSOs from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument survey, we construct a sample of approximately 600,000 galaxy-quasar pairs and measure the radial distribution and kinematics of the cool gas traced by Mg II absorption lines as a function of galaxy properties from redshift 0.4 to redshift 1.2. Our results show that the covering fraction of the cool gas around LRGs increases with redshift, following a trend similar to the global evolution of galaxy star formation rate. At small radii (< 0.3rvir), the covering fraction anti-correlates with stellar mass, suggesting that mass-dependent processes suppress the cool gas content in the inner region. In addition, we measure the gas dispersion by modeling the velocity distribution of absorbers with a narrow and a broad components -- sigma_n ~ 160 and sigma_b ~ 380 km/s -- and quantify their relative contributions. The results show that the broad component becomes more prominent in the outer region, and its relative importance in the central region grows with increasing stellar mass. Finally, we discuss possible origins of the cool gas around massive galaxies, including the contribution of satellite galaxies and the precipitation scenario.

Chang, Yu-Ling [Taiwan, Natl. Taiwan U.] (ORCID:00↗
DOE OSTI2022

The Anisotropic Circumgalactic Medium of Massive Early-type Galaxies

Using measurements of the [O iii], Hα, and [N ii] emission line fluxes originating in the cool (T ~10 4 K) gas that populates the halos of massive early-type galaxies with stellar masses greater than 10 10.4 M ⊙ , we explore the recent conjecture that active galactic nucleus (AGN) activity preferentially removes the circumgalactic medium (CGM) along the polar (minor-axis) direction. We find deficits in the mean emission line flux of [O III] and Hα (65% and 43%, respectively) along the polar versus planar directions, although due to the large uncertainties in these difficult measurements the results are of marginal statistical significance (1.5σ). More robustly (97%–99.9% confidence depending on the statistical test), diagnostic line ratios show stronger AGN ionization signatures along the polar direction at small radii than at other angles or radii. Our results are consistent with the conjecture of an anisotropic CGM in massive early-type galaxies, suggested on independent grounds, that is tied to AGN activity and begin to show the potential of CGM mapping using emission lines.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Identifying Circumgalactic Medium Absorption in QSO Spectra: A Bayesian Approach

We present a study of candidate galaxy–absorber pairs for 43 low-redshift QSO sightlines (0.06 < z < 0.85) observed with the Hubble Space Telescope/Cosmic Origins Spectrograph that lie within the footprint of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with a statistical approach to match absorbers with galaxies near the QSO lines of sight using only the SDSS Data Release 12 photometric data for the galaxies, including estimates of their redshifts. Our Bayesian methods combine the SDSS photometric information with measured properties of the circumgalactic medium to find the most probable galaxy match, if any, for each absorber in the line-of-sight QSO spectrum. We find ~630 candidate galaxy–absorber pairs using two different statistics. The methods are able to reproduce pairs reported in the targeted spectroscopic studies upon which we base the statistics at a rate of 72%. The properties of the galaxies comprising the candidate pairs have median redshift, luminosity, and stellar mass, all estimated from the photometric data, $z$ = 0.13, L = 0.1$L$ * , and $\mathrm{log}({M}_{* }/{M}_{\odot })=9.7$. The median impact parameter of the candidate pairs is ~430 kpc, or ~3.5 times the galaxy virial radius. The results are broadly consistent with the high Ly$α$ covering fraction out to this radius found in previous studies. In conclusion, this method of matching absorbers and galaxies can be used to prioritize targets for spectroscopic studies, and we present specific examples of promising systems for such follow-up.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

A strong blend in the morning: studying the circumgalactic medium before cosmic noon with strong, blended Ly α forest systems

ABSTRACT We study of the properties of a new class of circumgalactic medium absorbers identified in the Ly α forest: ‘Strong, Blended Lyman-α’ (or SBLA) absorption systems. We study SBLAs at 2.4 < z < 3.1 in SDSS-IV/eBOSS spectra by their strong extended Ly α absorption complexes covering 138 $\, \, {\rm km}\, {\rm s}^{-1}$ with an integrated $\log (N_{\rm H\, {\small I}}/\mathrm{cm}^{-2}) =16.04$$\substack{+0.05 \\ -0.06}$ and Doppler parameter b = 18.1$\substack{+0.7 \\ -0.4}$$\, \, {\rm km}\, {\rm s}^{-1}$. Clustering with the Ly α forest provides a large-scale structure bias of b = 2.34 ± 0.06 and halo mass estimate of $M_h \approx 10^{12}\, h^{-1}\, {\rm M_{\odot }}$ for our SBLA sample. We measure the ensemble mean column densities of 22 metal features in the SBLA composite spectrum and find that no single-population multiphase model for them is viable. We therefore explore the underlying SBLA population by forward modelling the SBLA absorption distribution. Based on covariance measurements and favoured populations we find that ≈25 per cent of our SBLAs have stronger metals. Using silicon only we find that our strong metal SBLAs trace gas with a log (nH/cm−3) > −2.40 for T = 103.5 K and show gas clumping on <210 parsec scales. We fit multiphase models to this strong subpopulation and find a low ionization phase with nH = 1 cm−3, T = 103.5 K, and [X/H] = 0.8, an intermediate ionization phase with log (nH/cm−3) = −3.05, T = 103.5 K and [X/H] = −0.8, and a poorly constrained higher ionization phase. We find that the low ionization phase favours cold, dense super-solar metallicity gas with a clumping scale of just 0.009 parsecs.

Morrison, Sean (ORCID:0000000267702627)↗
DOE OSTI2025

Cosmic Ray Mediated Thermal Fronts in the Warm-Hot Circumgalactic Medium

We investigate the 1D plane-parallel front connecting the warm ($10^4$ K) and hot ($10^6$ K) phases of the circumgalactic medium (CGM), focusing on the influence of cosmic rays (CRs) in shaping these transition layers. We find that cosmic rays dictate the thermal balance while other fluxes (thermal conduction, radiative cooling, and gas flow) adjust to compensate. We compute column density ratios for selected transition temperature ions and compare them with observational data. While most of our models fail to reproduce the observations, a few are successful, although we make no claims for their uniqueness. Some of the discrepancies may indicate challenges in capturing the profiles in cooler, photoionized regions, as has been suggested for by previous efforts to model thermal transition layers.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2020

Physical effects on compact high-velocity clouds in the circumgalactic medium

ABSTRACT We numerically investigate the evolution of compact high-velocity clouds (CHVCs) passing through a hot, tenuous gas representing the highly ionized circumgalactic medium (CGM) by applying the adaptive-mesh refinement code flash. The model clouds start from both hydrostatic and thermal equilibrium and are in pressure balance with the CGM. Here, we present 14 models, divided into two mass categories and two metallicities each and different velocities. We allow for self-gravity and thermal conduction or not. All models experience mass diffusion, radiative cooling, and external heating leading to dissociation and ionization. Our main findings are (1) self-gravity stabilizes clouds against Rayleigh–Taylor instability, which is disrupted within 10 sound-crossing times without; (2) clouds can develop Jeans-instable regions internally even though they are initially below Jeans mass; (3) all clouds lose mass by ram pressure and Kelvin–Helmholtz instability; (4) thermal conduction substantially lowers mass-loss rates, by this, extending the clouds’ lifetimes, particularly, more than doubling the lifetime of low-mass clouds; (5) thermal conduction leads to continuous, filamentary stripping, while the removed gas is heated up quickly and mixes efficiently with the ambient CGM; (6) without thermal conduction the removed gas consists of dense, cool, clumpy fragments; (7) thermal conduction might prevent CHVCs from forming stars; and (8) clouds decelerated by means of drag from the ambient CGM form head-tail shapes and collapse after they reach velocities characteristic for intermediate-velocity clouds. Conclusively, only sophisticated modelling of CHVCs as non-homogeneous and non-isothermal clouds with thermal conduction and self-gravity explains observed morphologies and naturally leads to the suppression of star formation.

Sander, Bastian↗
DOE OSTI2020

MUSEQuBES: calibrating the redshifts of Ly α emitters using stacked circumgalactic medium absorption profiles

ABSTRACT Ly α emission lines are typically found to be redshifted with respect to the systemic redshifts of galaxies, likely due to resonant scattering of Ly α photons. Here, we measure the average velocity offset for a sample of 96 z ≈ 3.3 Ly α emitters (LAEs) with a median Ly α flux (luminosity) of ${\approx}10^{-17}~\rm erg~cm^{-2}~s^{-1}$ (${\approx}10^{42}~\rm erg~s^{-1}$) and a median star formation rate (SFR) of ≈1.3 $\rm M_{\odot }~yr^{-1}$ (not corrected for possible dust extinction), detected by the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer as part of our MUSEQuBES circumgalactic medium (CGM) survey. By postulating that the stacked CGM absorption profiles of these LAEs, probed by eight background quasars, must be centred on the systemic redshift, we measure an average velocity offset, Voffset = 171\pm 8 km s−1, between the Ly α emission peak and the systemic redshift. The observed Voffset is lower by factors of ≈1.4 and ≈2.6 compared to the velocity offsets measured for narrow-band-selected LAEs and Lyman break galaxies, respectively, which probe galaxies with higher masses and SFRs. Consistent with earlier studies based on direct measurements for individual objects, we find that the Voffset is correlated with the full width at half-maximum of the red peak of the Ly α line, and anticorrelated with the rest-frame equivalent width. Moreover, we find that Voffset is correlated with SFR with a sub-linear scaling relation, $V_{\rm offset}\propto \rm SFR^{0.16\pm 0.03}$. Adopting the mass scaling for main-sequence galaxies, such a relation suggests that Voffset scales with the circular velocity of the dark matter haloes hosting the LAEs.

Muzahid, Sowgat↗
DOE OSTI2024

Ne viii in the Warm-hot Circumgalactic Medium of FIRE Simulations and in Observations

Abstract The properties of warm-hot gas around ∼ L * galaxies can be studied with absorption lines from highly ionized metals. We predict Ne viii column densities from cosmological zoom-in simulations of halos with masses in ∼10 12 and ∼10 13 M ☉ from the Feedback in Realistic Environments (FIRE) project. Ne viii traces the volume-filling, virial-temperature gas in ∼10 12 M ☉ halos. In ∼10 13 M ☉ halos the Ne viii gas is clumpier, and biased toward the cooler part of the warm-hot phase. We compare the simulations to observations from the COS Absorption Survey of Baryon Harbors (or CASBaH) and COS Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (or CUBS). We show that when inferring halo masses from stellar masses to compare simulated and observed halos, it is important to account for the scatter in the stellar-mass–halo-mass relation, especially at M ⋆ ≳ 10 10.5 M ☉ . Median Ne viii columns in the fiducial FIRE-2 model are about as high as observed upper limits allow, while the simulations analyzed do not reproduce the highest observed columns. This suggests that the median Ne viii profiles predicted by the simulations are consistent with observations, but that the simulations may underpredict the scatter. We find similar agreement with analytical models that assume a product of the halo gas fraction and metallicity (relative to solar) ∼0.1, indicating that observations are consistent with plausible circumgalactic medium temperatures, metallicities, and gas masses. Variants of the FIRE simulations with a modified supernova feedback model and/or active galactic nuclei feedback included (as well as some other cosmological simulations from the literature) more systematically underpredict Ne viii columns. The circumgalactic Ne viii observations therefore provide valuable constraints on simulations that otherwise predict realistic galaxy properties.

Wijers, Nastasha A. (ORCID:0000000163747185)↗
DOE OSTI2021

DIISC-II: Unveiling the Connections between Star Formation and Interstellar Medium in the Extended Ultraviolet Disk of NGC 3344

We present our investigation of the extended ultraviolet (XUV) disk galaxy, NGC 3344, conducted as part of Deciphering the Interplay between the Interstellar medium, Stars, and the Circumgalactic medium survey. We use surface and aperture photometry of individual young stellar complexes to study star formation and its effect on the physical properties of the interstellar medium. We measure the specific star formation rate (sSFR) and find it to increase from 10 –10 yr –1 in the inner disk to >10 –8 yr –1 in the extended disk. This provides evidence for inside-out disk growth. If these sSFRs are maintained, the XUV disk stellar mass can double in ~0.5 Gyr, suggesting a burst of star formation. The XUV disk will continue forming stars for a long time due to the high gas depletion times (τ dep ). The stellar complexes in the XUV disk have high-Σ H I and low-Σ SFR with τ dep ~ 10 Gyr, marking the onset of a deviation from the traditional Kennicutt–Schmidt law. We find that both far-ultraviolet (FUV) and a combination of FUV and 24 μm effectively trace star formation in the XUV disk. Hα is weaker in general and prone to stochasticities in the formation of massive stars. Investigation of the circumgalactic medium at 29.5 kpc resulted in the detection of two absorbing systems with metal-line species: the stronger absorption component is consistent with gas flows around the disk, most likely tracing inflow, while the weaker component is likely tracing corotating circumgalactic gas.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Probing large-scale UV background inhomogeneity associated with quasars using metal absorption

ABSTRACT We study large-scale UV background inhomogeneity in three-dimensions associated with the observed quasar populations at high redshift. We do this by measuring metal absorption through quasar absorption spectrum stacking as a function distance to closest quasar in SDSS-IV/eBOSS on 10 s of comoving megaparsec scales. We study both intergalactic medium absorbers and mixed circumgalactic medium absorbers and probe absorption in O vi, C iv, and Si iv, and Si iii. Overall, stronger high ionization species absorption is seen closer to quasars at 2.4 < z < 3.1. O vi absorption shows a particularly strong change, with effects in C iv evident in some cases, and more marginal effects in Si iii and Si iv. We further study 2.05 < z < 2.4 (with weak signs of increasing homogeneity with time) and explore the study of metal absorption as a function of integrated SDSS-r band flux quasar flux (yielding consistent but less significant results). While the metal absorption does show sensitivity to large-scale 3D quasar proximity, the current incomplete quasar samples limit detailed interpretation. This work does, however, demonstrate that UV background inhomogeneities exist on scales of several 10 s of comoving megaparsecs associated with quasars and that they can be measured with precision by examining metal absorption in the intergalactic medium.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2023

The Bimodal Absorption System Imaging Campaign (BASIC). I. A Dual Population of Low-metallicity Absorbers at z < 1

The bimodal absorption system imaging campaign (BASIC) aims to characterize the galaxy environments of a sample of 36 H I-selected partial Lyman limit systems (pLLSs) and Lyman limit systems (LLSs) in 23 QSO fields at z ≲ 1. These pLLSs/LLSs provide a unique sample of absorbers with unbiased and well-constrained metallicities, allowing us to explore the origins of metal-rich and low-metallicity circumgalactic medium (CGM) at z < 1. Here we present Keck/KCWI and Very Large Telescope/MUSE observations of 11 of these QSO fields (19 pLLSs) that we combine with Hubble Space Telescope/Advanced Camera for Surveys imaging to identify and characterize the absorber-associated galaxies at 0.16 ≲ z ≲ 0.84. We find 23 unique absorber-associated galaxies, with an average of one associated galaxy per absorber. For seven absorbers, all with <10% solar metallicities, we find no associated galaxies with logM * ≳ 9.0 within ρ/R vir and |Δv|/v esc ≤ 1.5 with respect to the absorber. We do not find any strong correlations between the metallicities or H I column densities of the gas and most of the galaxy properties, except for the stellar mass of the galaxies: the low-metallicity ([X/H] ≤ –1.4) systems have a probability of $0.39_{–0.15}^{+0.16}$ for having a host galaxy with logM * ≥ 9.0 within ρ/R vir ≤ 1.5, while the higher metallicity absorbers have a probability of $0.78_{–0.13}^{+0.10}$. This implies metal-enriched pLLSs/LLSs at z < 1 are typically associated with the CGM of galaxies with logM * > 9.0, whereas low-metallicity pLLSs/LLSs are found in more diverse locations, with one population arising in the CGM of galaxies and another more broadly distributed in overdense regions of the universe. Using absorbers not associated with galaxies, we estimate the unweighted geometric mean metallicity of the intergalactic medium to be [X/H] ≲ –2.1 at z < 1, which is lower than previously estimated.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗