Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userThe Circum-Galactic Medium of MASsive Spirals II: Probing the Nature of Hot Gaseous Halo around the Most Massive Isolated Spiral Galaxies
380
0
0.0
(
0
)
Authors
Jiang-Tao Li
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
We present the analysis of the XMM-Newton data of the Circum-Galactic Medium of MASsive Spirals (CGM-MASS) sample of six extremely massive spiral galaxies in the local Universe. All the CGM-MASS galaxies have diffuse X-ray emission from hot gas detected above the background extending $sim(30-100)rm~kpc$ from the galactic center. This doubles the existing detection of such extended hot CGM around massive spiral galaxies. The radial soft X-ray intensity profile of hot gas can be fitted with a $beta$-function with the slope typically in the range of $beta=0.35-0.55$. This range, as well as those $beta$ values measured for other massive spiral galaxies, including the Milky Way (MW), are in general consistent with X-ray luminous elliptical galaxies of similar hot gas luminosity and temperature, and with those predicted from a hydrostatic isothermal gaseous halo. Hot gas in such massive spiral galaxy tends to have temperature comparable to its virial value, indicating the importance of gravitational heating. This is in contrast to lower mass galaxies where hot gas temperature tends to be systematically higher than the virial one. The ratio of the radiative cooling to free fall timescales of hot gas is much larger than the critical value of $sim10$ throughout the entire halos of all the CGM-MASS galaxies, indicating the inefficiency of gas cooling and precipitation in the CGM. The hot CGM in these massive spiral galaxies is thus most likely in a hydrostatic state, with the feedback material mixed with the CGM, instead of escaping out of the halo or falling back to the disk. We also homogenize and compare the halo X-ray luminosity measured for the CGM-MASS galaxies and other galaxy samples and discuss the missing galactic feedback detected in these massive spiral galaxies.
rate research
Read More
The baryon content around local galaxies is observed to be much less than is needed in Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Simulations indicate that a significant fraction of these missing baryons may be stored in a hot tenuous circum-galactic medium (CGM) around massive galaxies extending to or even beyond the virial radius of their dark matter halos. Previous observations in X-ray and Sunyaev-Zeldovich (SZ) signal claimed that $sim(1-50)%$ of the expected baryons are stored in a hot CGM within the virial radius. The large scatter is mainly caused by the very uncertain extrapolation of the hot gas density profile based on the detection in a small radial range (typically within 10%-20% of the virial radius). Here we report stacking X-ray observations of six local isolated massive spiral galaxies from the CGM-MASS sample. We find that the mean density profile can be characterized by a single power law out to a galactocentric radius of $approx 200rm~kpc$ (or $approx130rm~kpc$ above the 1~$sigma$ background uncertainty), about half the virial radius of the dark matter halo. We can now estimate that the hot CGM within the virial radius accounts for $(8pm4)%$ of the baryonic mass expected for the halos. Including the stars, the baryon fraction is $(27pm16)%$, or $(39pm20)%$ by assuming a flattened density profile at $rgtrsim130rm~kpc$. We conclude that the hot baryons within the virial radius of massive galaxy halos are insufficient to explain the missing baryons.
The presence of hot gaseous coronae around present-day massive spiral galaxies is a fundamental prediction of galaxy formation models. However, our observational knowledge remains scarce, since to date only four gaseous coronae were detected around spirals with massive stellar bodies ($gtrsim2times10^{11} rm{M_{odot}}$). To explore the hot coronae around lower mass spiral galaxies, we utilized Chandra X-ray observations of a sample of eight normal spiral galaxies with stellar masses of $(0.7-2.0)times10^{11} rm{M_{odot}}$. Although statistically significant diffuse X-ray emission is not detected beyond the optical radii ($sim20$ kpc) of the galaxies, we derive $3sigma$ limits on the characteristics of the coronae. These limits, complemented with previous detections of NGC 1961 and NGC 6753, are used to probe the Illustris Simulation. The observed $3sigma$ upper limits on the X-ray luminosities and gas masses exceed or are at the upper end of the model predictions. For NGC 1961 and NGC 6753 the observed gas temperatures, metal abundances, and electron density profiles broadly agree with those predicted by Illustris. These results hint that the physics modules of Illustris are broadly consistent with the observed properties of hot coronae around spiral galaxies. However, a shortcoming of Illustris is that massive black holes, mostly residing in giant ellipticals, give rise to powerful radio-mode AGN feedback, which results in under luminous coronae for ellipticals.
We present a deep XMM-Newton observation of the extremely massive, rapidly rotating, relativistic-jet-launching spiral galaxy 2MASX J23453268-0449256. Diffuse X-ray emission from the hot gaseous halo around the galaxy is robustly detected out to a radius of 160 kpc, corresponding roughly to 35 per cent of the virial radius ($approx 450$ kpc). We fit the X-ray emission with the standard isothermal $beta$ model, and it is found that the enclosed gas mass within 160 kpc is $1.15_{-0.24}^{+0.22} times 10^{11} , rm{M}_{odot}$. Extrapolating the gas mass profile out to the virial radius, the estimated gas mass is $8.25_{-1.77}^{+1.62} times 10^{11} , rm{M}_{odot}$, which makes up roughly 65 per cent of the total baryon mass content of the galaxy. When the stellar mass is considered and accounting for the statistical and systematic uncertainties, the baryon mass fraction within the virial radius is $0.121_{-0.043}^{+0.043}$, in agreement with the universal baryon fraction. The baryon mass fraction is consistent with all baryons falling within $r_{200}$, or with only half of the baryons falling within $r_{200}$. Similar to the massive spiral galaxies NGC 1961 and NGC 6753, we find a low value for the metal abundance of $approx 0.1 {rm{Z}}_{odot}$, which appears uniform with radius. We also detect diffuse X-ray emission associated with the northern and southern lobes, possibly attributed to inverse Compton scattering of cosmic microwave background photons. The estimated energy densities of the electrons and magnetic field in these radio lobes suggest that they are electron-dominated by a factor of 10$-$200, depending on the choice of the lower cut-off energy of the electron spectrum.
We present IRAM 30m observations of molecular lines of CO and its isotopologues from the massive spiral galaxy NGC 5908 selected from the CGM-MASS sample. $^{12}$CO $J=1-0$, $^{12}$CO $J=2-1$, and $^{13}$CO $J=1-0$ lines have been detected in most of the positions along the galactic disk. The total molecular gas mass of NGC 5908 is $sim7times10^9rm~M_odot$ and the total cool gas mass adding atomic hydrogen is $sim1.3times10^{10}rm~M_odot$, comparable to the upper limit of the mass of the X-ray emitting hot gas in the halo. Modeling the rotation curves constructed with all three CO lines indicates that NGC 5908 has a dark matter halo mass of $M_{rm vir}sim10^{13}rm~M_{rm odot}$, putting it among the most massive isolated spiral galaxies. The $^{12}$CO/$^{13}$CO $J=1-0$, $^{12}$CO $J=2-1$/$J=1-0$ line ratios and the estimated molecular gas temperature all indicate normal but non-negligible star formation in this fairly gas-rich massive isolated spiral galaxy, consistent with the measured star formation intensity and surface densities. The galaxy is probably at an early evolutionary stage after a fast growth stage with mergers and/or starbursts, with plenty of leftover cool gas, relatively high SFR, low hot CGM cooling rate, and low X-ray emissivity.
The hot circum-galactic medium (CGM) represents the hot gas distributed beyond the stellar content of the galaxies while typically within their dark matter halos. It serves as a depository of energy and metal-enriched materials from galactic feedback and a reservoir from which the galaxy acquires fuels to form stars. It thus plays a critical role in the coevolution of galaxies and their environments. X-rays are one of the best ways to trace the hot CGM. I will briefly review what we have learned about the hot CGM based on X-ray observations over the past two decades, and what we still do not know. I will also briefly prospect what may be the foreseeable breakthrough in the next one or two decades with future X-ray missions.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
