A Stellar Feedback Origin for Neutral Hydrogen in High-Redshift Quasar-Mass Halos

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that stellar feedback-driven galactic winds, especially from satellite galaxies, can explain the high covering fractions of neutral hydrogen observed in high-redshift quasar-mass halos, without needing AGN feedback.

Contribution

It shows that stellar feedback alone can produce the large HI covering fractions in massive halos, extending previous models to more massive systems.

Findings

Star formation-driven winds produce observed HI covering fractions.

Satellite galaxy winds are crucial for reproducing observations.

Predictions include high HI covering fractions in non-AGN quasar-mass halos.

Abstract

Observations reveal that quasar host halos at z~2 have large covering fractions of cool dense gas (>~60% for Lyman limit systems within a projected virial radius). Most simulations have so far have failed to explain these large observed covering fractions. We analyze a new set of 15 simulated massive halos with explicit stellar feedback from the FIRE project, covering the halo mass range M_h~2x10^12-10^13 Msun at z=2. This extends our previous analysis of the circum-galactic medium of high-redshift galaxies to more massive halos. AGN feedback is not included in these simulations. We find Lyman limit system covering fractions consistent with those observed around quasars. The large HI covering fractions arise from star formation-driven galactic winds, including winds from low-mass satellite galaxies that interact with cosmological filaments. We show that it is necessary to resolve these satellite galaxies and their winds to reproduce the large Lyman limit system covering fractions observed in quasar-mass halos. Our simulations predict that galaxies occupying dark matter halos of mass similar to quasars but without a luminous AGN should have Lyman limit system covering fractions comparable to quasars.