1. The CGM 2 Survey: Quenching and the Transformation of the Circumgalactic Medium.
- Author
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Tchernyshyov, Kirill, Werk, Jessica K., Wilde, Matthew C., Prochaska, J. Xavier, Tripp, Todd M., Burchett, Joseph N., Bordoloi, Rongmon, Howk, J. Christopher, Lehner, Nicolas, O'Meara, John M., Tejos, Nicolas, and Tumlinson, Jason
- Subjects
SPACE telescopes ,STELLAR mass ,GALAXY formation ,STAR formation ,GALACTIC redshift ,GALAXIES ,STATISTICAL significance - Abstract
This study addresses how the incidence rate of strong O vi absorbers in a galaxy's circumgalactic medium (CGM) depends on galaxy mass and, independently, on the amount of star formation in the galaxy. We use Hubble Space Telescope/Cosmic Origins Spectrograph absorption spectroscopy of quasars to measure O vi absorption within 400 projected kpc and 300 km s
−1 of 52 galaxies with M* ∼ 3 × 1010 M⊙ . The galaxies have redshifts 0.12 < z < 0.6, stellar masses 1010.1 M⊙ < M* < 1010.9 M⊙ , and spectroscopic classifications as star-forming or passive. We compare the incidence rates of high column density O vi absorption (NO VI ≥ 1014.3 cm−2 ) near star-forming and passive galaxies in two narrow ranges of stellar mass and, separately, in a matched range of halo mass. In all three mass ranges, the O vi covering fraction within 150 kpc is higher around star-forming galaxies than around passive galaxies with greater than 3 σ -equivalent statistical significance. On average, the CGM of star-forming galaxies with M* ∼ 3 × 1010 M⊙ contains more O vi than the CGM of passive galaxies with the same mass. This difference is evidence for a CGM transformation that happens together with galaxy quenching and is not driven primarily by halo mass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2023
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