1. Signatures of gas flows – II. Connecting the kinematics of the multiphase circumgalactic medium to galaxy rotation.
- Author
-
Nateghi, Hasti, Kacprzak, Glenn G, Nielsen, Nikole M, Sameer, Murphy, Michael T, Churchill, Christopher W, and Charlton, Jane C
- Subjects
ROTATION of galaxies ,GALACTIC evolution ,GAS flow ,IONIZATION energy ,SPACE telescopes - Abstract
The multiphase circumgalactic medium (CGM) hosts critical processes that affect galaxy evolution such as accretion and outflows. We searched for evidence of these phenomena by using the EW co-rotation fraction (|$f_{\rm EWcorot}$|) to study the kinematic connection between the multiphase CGM and host galaxy rotation. We examined CGM absorption from Hubble Space Telescope / Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (including, but not limited to, Si ii , C ii , Si iii , C iii , and O vi) within |$21\le D\le ~276$| kpc of 27 galaxies. We find the median |$f_{\rm EWcorot}$| for all ions is consistent within errors and the |$f_{\rm EWcorot}$| increases with increasing N |$({{{\rm H} \rm{\small I}}})$|. The |$f_{\rm EWcorot}$| of lower ionization gas decreases with increasing |$D/R_{\rm vir}$| , while O vi and H i are consistent with being flat. The |$f_{\rm EWcorot}$| varies minimally as a function of azimuthal angle and is similar for all ions at a fixed azimuthal angle. The larger number of O vi detections enabled us to investigate where the majority of co-rotating gas is found. Highly co-rotating O vi primarily resides along the galaxies' major axis. Looking at the |$f_{\rm EWcorot}$| as a function of ionization potential (|${{\rm d}{({f_{\rm EWcorot}})}}/{{\rm d}{(\rm eV)}}$|), we find a stronger co-rotation signature for lower ionization gas. There are suggestions of a connection between the CGM metallicity and major axis co-rotation where low-ionization gas with higher |$f_{\rm EWcorot}$| exhibits lower metallicity and may trace large-scale filamentary inflows. Higher ionization gas with higher |$f_{\rm EWcorot}$| exhibits higher metallicity and may instead trace co-planar recycled gas accretion. Our results stress the importance of comparing absorption originating from a range of ionization phases to differentiate between various gas flow scenarios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF