The COS CGM Compendium. IV. Effects of Varying Ionization Backgrounds on Metallicity Determinations in the z < 1 Circumgalactic Medium

TL;DR

This study investigates how uncertainties in the extreme ultraviolet background radiation affect metallicity estimates of the circumgalactic medium at redshift less than 1, highlighting the importance of accounting for EUVB variations in modeling.

Contribution

It introduces a method to incorporate EUVB slope uncertainties into photoionization models, improving the robustness of metallicity determinations in the CGM.

Findings

Metallicity estimates increase by ~0.3 dex with a hardened EUVB slope.

Uncertainty in EUVB slope raises metallicity error margins from 0.08 to 0.14 dex.

Current data cannot tightly constrain the EUVB slope itself.

Abstract

Metallicity estimates of circumgalactic gas based on absorption line measurements typically require photoionization modeling to account for unseen ionization states. We explore the impact of uncertainties in the extreme ultraviolet background (EUVB) radiation on such metallicity determinations for the z < 1 circumgalactic medium (CGM). In particular, we study how uncertainties in the power-law slope of the EUV radiation, $\mathrm{\alpha_{EUVB}}$, from active galactic nuclei affect metallicity estimates in a sample of 34 absorbers with HI column densities between 15.25 < log ($\mathrm{N_{HI}}$ / $\mathrm{cm^{-2}}$) < 17.25 and measured metal ion column densities. We demonstrate the sensitivity of metallicity estimates to changes in the EUV power-law slope of active galactic nuclei, $\mathrm{\alpha_{EUVB}}$, at low redshift (z < 1), showing derived absorber metallicities increase on average by approximately 0.3 dex as the EUV slope is hardened from $\mathrm{\alpha_{EUVB}}$ = -2.0 to -1.4. We use Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling of photoionization models with $\mathrm{\alpha_{EUVB}}$ as a free parameter to derive metallicities for these absorbers. The current sample of absorbers does not provide a robust constraint on the slope, $\mathrm{\alpha_{EUVB}}$, itself; we discuss how future analyses may provide stronger constraints. Marginalizing over the uncertainty in the slope of the background, we find the average uncertainties in the metallicity determinations increase from 0.08 dex to 0.14 dex when switching from a fixed EUVB slope to one that freely varies. Thus, we demonstrate that EUVB uncertainties can be included in ionization models while still allowing for robust metallicity inferences.