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Register a new userProbing the IGM/Galaxy Connection Toward PKS0405-123 III: The Galaxy Survey and Correlations with OVI Absorbers
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Jason X. Prochaska
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We present a galaxy survey of the field surrounding PKS0405-123 performed with the WFCCD spectrometer at Las Campanas Observatory. The survey is comprised of two datasets: (1) a greater than 95% complete survey to R = 20 of the field centered on PKS0405-123 with 10 radius (L~0.1 L_* and radius of 1Mpc at z=0.1); and (2) a set of four discontiguous (i.e. non-overlapping), flanking fields covering ~1 square degree area with completeness ~90% to R=19.5mag. With these datasets, one can examine the local and large-scale galactic environment of the absorption systems identified toward PKS0405-123. In this paper, we focus on the OVI systems analyzed in Paper I. The results suggest that this gas arises in a diverse set of galactic environments including the halos of individual galaxies, galaxy groups, filamentary-like structures, and also regions devoid of luminous galaxies. In this small sample, there are no obvious trends between galactic environment and the physical properties of the gas. Furthermore, we find similar results for a set of absorption systems with comparable N(HI) but no detectable metal-lines. The observations indicate that metals are distributed throughout a wide range of environments in the local universe. Future papers in this series will address the distribution of galactic environments associated with metal-line systems and the Lya forest based on data for over 10 additional fields. All of the data presented in this paper is made public at a dedicated web site.
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We present results from an analysis of FUSE and HST/STIS spectroscopy of the z_em=0.57 quasar PKS0405-123. We focus on the intervening metal-line systems identified along the sightline and investigate their ionization mechanism, ionization state, and chemical abundances. We identify six OVI absorbers to a 3sigma equivalent width (EW) limit of 60mA. This implies an incidence dN/dz = 16^{+9}_{-6} consistent with previous OVI studies. In half of the OVI systems we report positive detections of CIII suggesting the gas is predominantly photoionized, has multiple ionization phases, or is in a non-equilibrium state. This contrasts with the general description of the warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) as described by numerical simulations where the gas is predominantly in collisional ionization equilibrium. We have also searched the sightline for the NeVIII doublet (a better probe of WHIM gas with T>10^6K) over the redshift range 0.2<z<z_em and report no positive detections to an EW limit of 80mA giving dN/dz<40 at 95% c.l. The photoionized metal-line systems exhibit a correlation between the ionization parameter (U) and HI column density for N(HI) = 10^(14-16) cm^-2. Both the slope and normalization of this correlation match the prediction inferred from the results of Dave and Tripp for the low z Lya forest. In turn, the data show a tentative, unexpected result: five out of the six photoionized metal-line systems show a total hydrogen column density within a factor of 2 of 10^18.7 cm^-2. Finally, the median metallicity [M/H] of twelve z~0.3 absorbers with N(HI)>10^14 cm^-2 is [M/H] ~> -1.5 with large scatter. This significantly exceeds the median metallicity of CIV and OVI systems at z~3 and indicates enrichment of the intergalactic medium over the past 10Gyr. [abriged]
We analyze the association of galaxies to Lya and OVI absorption, the most commonly detected transitions in the low-z intergalactic medium (IGM), in the fields of 14 quasars with z_em = 0.06-0.57. Confirming previous studies, we observe a high covering fraction for Lya absorption to impact parameter rho = 300kpc: 33/37 of our L>0.01L* galaxies show Lya equivalent width W_Lya>50mA. Galaxies of all luminosity L>0.01L* and spectral type are surrounded by a diffuse and ionized circumgalactic medium (CGM), whose baryonic mass is estimated at ~10^(10.5 +/- 0.3) Msun for a constant N_H. The virialized halos and extended CGM of present-day galaxies are responsible for most strong Lya absorbers (W_Lya > 300mA) but cannot reproduce the majority of observed lines in the Lya forest. We conclude that the majority of Lya absorption with W_Lya=30-300mA occurs in the cosmic web predicted by cosmological simulations and estimate a characteristic width for these filaments of ~400kpc. Regarding OVI, we observe a near unity covering fraction to rho=200kpc for L>0.1L* galaxies and to rho = 300kpc for sub-L* (0.1 L*<L<L*) galaxies. Similar to our Lya results, stronger OVI systems (W_OVI > 70mA) arise in the virialized halos of L>0.1L* galaxies. Unlike Lya, the weaker OVI systems (W_OVI~30mA) arise in the extended CGM of sub-L* galaxies. The majority of OVI gas observed in the low-z IGM is associated with a diffuse medium surrounding individual galaxies with L~0.3L*, and rarely originates in the so-called warm-hot IGM (WHIM) predicted by cosmological simulations.
We publish the survey for galaxies in 20 fields containing ultraviolet bright quasars (with z_em 0.1 to 0.5) that can be used to study the association between galaxies and absorption systems from the low-z intergalactic medium (IGM). The survey is magnitude limited (R~19.5 mag) and highly complete out to 10 from the quasar in each field. It was designed to detect dwarf galaxies (L ~ 0.1 L*) at an impact parameter rho 1Mpc (z=0.1) from a quasar. The complete sample (all 20 fields) includes R-band photometry for 84718 sources and confirmed redshifts for 2800 sources. This includes 1198 galaxies with 0.005 < z < (z_em - 0.01) at a median redshift of 0.18, which may associated with IGM absorption lines. All of the imaging was acquired with cameras on the Swope 40 telescope and the spectra were obtained via slitmask observations using the WFCCD spectrograph on the Dupont 100 telescope at Las Campanas Observatory (LCO). This paper describes the data reduction, imaging analysis, photometry, and spectral analysis of the survey. We tabulate the principal measurements for all sources in each field and provide the spectroscopic dataset online.
Two 5 square degree regions around the NGC 7332/9 galaxy pair and the isolated galaxy NGC 1156 have been mapped in the 21-cm line of neutral hydrogen (HI) with the Arecibo L-band Feed Array out to a redshift of ~0.065$ (~20,000$ km/s) as part of the Arecibo Galaxy Environment Survey. One of the aims of this survey is to investigate the environment of galaxies by identifying dwarf companions and interaction remnants; both of these areas provide the potential for such discoveries. The neutral hydrogen observations were complemented by optical and radio follow-up observations with a number of telescopes. A total of 87 galaxies were found, of which 39 (45 per cent) were previously cataloged and 15 (17 per cent) have prior redshifts. Two dwarf galaxies have been discovered in the NGC 7332 group and a single dwarf galaxy in the vicinity NGC 1156 . A parallel optical search of the area revealed one further possible dwarf galaxy near NGC 7332.
We present the first results from a study of OVI absorption around galaxies at $z<1.44$ using data from a near-infrared grism spectroscopic Hubble Space Telescope Large Program, the Quasar Sightline and Galaxy Evolution (QSAGE) survey. QSAGE is the first grism galaxy survey to focus on the circumgalactic medium at $zsim1$, providing a blind survey of the galaxy population. Using the first of 12 fields, we provide details of the reduction methods, in particular the handling of the deep grism data which uses multiple position angles to minimise the effects of contamination from overlapping traces. The resulting galaxy sample is H$alpha$ flux limited ($f({rm Halpha}) > 2times10^{-17}$ erg s$^{-1}$ cm$^{-2}$) at 0.68<z<1.44, corresponding to $gtrsim0.2-0.8$ M$_odot$ yr$^{-1}$. We combine the galaxy data with high-resolution STIS and COS spectroscopy of the background quasar to study OVI in the circumgalactic medium. At z>0.68, we find 5 OVI absorption systems along the line of sight with identified galaxies lying at impact parameters of $bapprox100-350$ kpc (proper), whilst we find a further 13 galaxies with no significant associated OVI absorption (i.e. $N({rm OVI})<10^{13.5-14}$ cm$^{-2}$) in the same impact parameter and redshift range. We find a large scatter in the stellar mass and star-formation rates of the closest galaxies with associated OVI. Whilst one of the OVI absorber systems is found to be associated with a low mass galaxy group at $zapprox1.08$, we infer that the detected OVI absorbers typically lie in the proximity of dark matter halos of masses $10^{11.5} {rm M_odot}lesssim M_{rm halo}lesssim10^{12} {rm M_odot}$.
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