Spatial distribution of O VI covering fractions in the simulated circumgalactic medium
Entity
UAM. Departamento de Física TeóricaPublisher
American Astronomical SocietyDate
2021-01-20Citation
10.3847/1538-4357/abd033
Astrophysical Journal 907.1 (2021): 8
ISSN
0004-637X (print); 1538-4357 (online)DOI
10.3847/1538-4357/abd033Editor's Version
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/abd033Subjects
Circumgalactic medium (1879); Extragalactic astronomy (506); Quasar absorption line spectroscopy (1317); FísicaRights
© 2021 The American Astronomical SocietyAbstract
We use adaptive mesh refinement cosmological simulations to study the spatial distribution and covering fraction
of O VI absorption in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) as a function of projected virial radius and azimuthal
angle. We compare these simulations to an observed sample of 53 galaxies from the Multiphase Galaxy Halos
Survey. Using MOCKSPEC, an absorption-line analysis pipeline, we generate synthetic quasar absorption-line
observations of the simulated CGM. To best emulate observations, we studied the averaged properties of 15,000
“mock samples,” each of 53 sight lines having a distribution of D/Rvir and sight-line orientation statistically
consistent with the observations. We find that the O VI covering fraction obtained for the simulated galaxies agrees
well with the observed value for the inner halo (D/Rvir ≤ 0.375) and is within 1.1σ in the outer halo
(D/Rvir > 0.75), but is underproduced within 0.375 < D/Rvir ≤ 0.75. The observed bimodal distribution of the
O VI covering fraction with azimuthal angle, showing a higher frequency of absorption along the projected major
and minor axes of galaxies, is not reproduced in the simulations. Further analysis reveals the spatial-kinematic
distribution of O VI-absorbing gas is dominated by outflows in the inner halo mixed with an inflowing gas that
originates from farther out in the halo. Though the CGM of the individual simulated galaxies exhibits spatial
structure, the flat azimuthal distribution occurs because the individual simulated galaxies do not develop a CGM
structure that is universal from galaxy to galaxy
Files in this item
Google Scholar:Marra, Rachel
-
Churchill, Christopher W.
-
Kacprzak, Glenn G.
-
Vliet, Rachel Vander
-
Ceverino Rodríguez, Daniel
-
Lewis, James G.
-
Nielsen, Nikole M.
-
Muzahid, Sowgat
-
Charlton, Jane C.
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
The AGORA high-resolution galaxy simulations comparison project
Abel, Tom; Agertz, Oscar; Bryan, Greg L.; Ceverino Rodríguez, Daniel; Christensen, Charlotte R.; Conroy, Charlie; Dekel, Avishai; Gnedin, Nickolay Yu; Goldbaum, Nathan J.; Hahn, Oliver; Hobbs, Alexander; Hopkins, Philip F.; Hummels, Cameron B.; Iannuzzi, Francesca; Klypin, Anatoly; Kravtsov, Andrey V.; Krumholz, Mark R.; Leitner, Samuel N.; Madau, Piero; Mayer, Lucio; Moody, Christopher E.; Nagamine, Kentaro; Norman, Michael L.; O'Shea, Brian W.; Pillepich, Annalisa; Primack, Joel R.; Read, Justin I.; Robertson, Brant E.; Rocha, Miguel; Rudd, Douglas H.; Shen, Sijing; Smith., Britton D.; Szalay, Alexander S.; Teyssier, Romain; Todoroki, Keita; Turk, Matthew J.; Wadsley, James W.; Wise, John H.; Zolotov, Adi; Kim, Ji-hoon; Guedes, Javiera; Keres, Dusan; Kuhlen, Michael; Onorbe, Jose; Quinn, Thomas; Thompson, Robert
2014-01-01