Cosmic metal invaders: Intergalactic OVII as a tracer of the warm-hot intergalactic medium within cosmic filaments in the EAGLE simulation

TL;DR

This study uses the EAGLE simulation to analyze the distribution of OVII in cosmic filaments, revealing its limited detectability and implications for solving the missing baryons problem in the universe.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed simulation-based analysis of OVII distribution in cosmic filaments and assesses its detectability with future X-ray observations.

Findings

Only ~1% of filament volume contains detectable OVII densities.

Detection probability of intergalactic OVII is 10-20% per sight line with current surveys.

Tracing hot WHIM around haloes could reduce missing baryons by approximately 25%.

Abstract

The current observational status of the hot (log T(K) > 5.5) warm-hot intergalactic medium (WHIM) remains incomplete. While recent observations from stacking large numbers of Cosmic Web filaments have yielded statistically significant detections, direct measurements of single objects remain scarce. The lack of such a sample currently prevents a robust analysis of the cosmic baryon content composed of the hot WHIM, which could help solve the cosmological missing baryons problem. To improve the search for the missing baryons, we used the EAGLE simulation. Our aim is to understand the metal enrichment and distribution of highly ionised metals in the Cosmic Web. We detected the filaments by applying the Bisous formalism to the simulated galaxies, and characterised the spatial distributions as well as mass and volume fractions of the filamentary oxygen and OVII. We then constructed OVII column density maps and determined their detectability with Athena X-IFU. However, the oxygen and OVII number densities drop fast beyond the virial radii of haloes, falling below detectable levels at 700 kpc. Thus, only ~1% of the filament volumes are filled with OVII at detectable densities. This non-homogeneous distribution of the OVII complicates its usage for tracing the missing baryons. Instead, OVII forms narrow envelopes around haloes. This localised nature results in a low chance (10-20% per sight line) of detecting intergalactic OVII with Athena X-IFU within the SDSS catalogue of filaments. With future filament samples from the 4MOST survey, the chances increase up to a level of ~50%. Nonetheless, based on EAGLE results, this would not be enough to conclusively solve the missing baryon problem, as it would be limited to a few times the virial radii of haloes. Fortunately, the volumes around haloes are dense in hot WHIM, and tracing it could reduce the content of baryons still missing by ~25%.