The COS-Halos Survey: An Empirical Description of the Metal-Line Absorption in the Low-Redshift Circumgalactic Medium

TL;DR

This study provides an empirical analysis of metal-line absorption in the low-redshift circumgalactic medium around 44 galaxies, revealing a widespread, metal-enriched, cool gas component that declines with distance and is likely bound to galaxy halos.

Contribution

It offers the first comprehensive measurement of metal-line absorption in the low-z CGM, characterizing its extent, ionization state, and kinematics using HST/COS and Keck/HIRES data.

Findings

Significant metal-line absorption detected in 75% of galaxies.

Metal surface density decreases with impact parameter.

Cool CGM likely contains >10^9 solar masses of metals and gas.

Abstract

We present the equivalent width and column density measurements for low and intermediate ionization states of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) surrounding 44 low-z, L ~ L* galaxies drawn from the COS-Halos survey. These measurements are derived from far-UV transitions observed in HST/COS and Keck/HIRES spectra of background quasars within an impact parameter R < 160 kpc to the targeted galaxies. The data show significant metal-line absorption for 33 of the 44 galaxies, including quiescent systems, revealing the common occurance of a cool (T ~ 10^{4 - 5} K), metal-enriched CGM. The detection rates and column densities derived for these metal lines decrease with increasing impact parameter, a trend we interpret as a declining metal surface density profile for the CGM. A comparison of the relative column densities of adjacent ionization states indicates the gas is predominantly ionized. The large surface density in metals demands a large reservoir of metals and gas in the cool CGM (very conservatively, M_ CGMcool > 10^9 MSun), which likely traces a distinct density and/or temperature regime from the highly-ionized CGM traced by OVI absorption. The large dispersion in absorption strengths (including non-detections) suggests the cool CGM traces a wide range of densities or a mix of local ionizing conditions. Lastly, the kinematics inferred from the metal-line profiles are consistent with the cool CGM being bound to the dark matters halos hosting the galaxies; this gas may serve as fuel for future star-formation. Future work will leverage this dataset to provide estimates on the mass, metallicity, dynamics, and origin of the cool CGM in low-z, L* galaxies.