Halo gas cross sections and covering fractions of MgII absorption selected galaxies

We examine halo gas cross sections and covering fractions, fc, of intermediate-redshift Mg II absorption selected galaxies. We computed statistical absorber halo radii, Rx, using current values of dN/dz and Schechter luminosity function parameters, and have compared these values to the distribution of impact parameters and luminosities from a sample of 37 galaxies. For equivalent widths Wr(2796) ≥ 0.3 Å, we find 43 ≤ Rx ≤ 88 kpc, depending on the lower luminosity cutoff and the slope, β, of the Holmberg-like luminosity scaling, R ∝ α L^β . The observed distribution of impact parameters, D, are such that several absorbing galaxies lie at D > Rx and several non-absorbing galaxies lie at D ~ 0.5 for our sample. Moreover, the data suggest that halo radii of Mg II absorbing galaxies do not follow a luminosity scaling with β in the range of 0.2–0.28, if fc = 1 as previously reported. However, provided fc ~ 0.5, we find that halo radii can remain consistent with a Holmberg-like luminosity relation with β ≃ 0.2 and R∗ = Rx/√(fc) ~ 110 kpc. No luminosity scaling (β = 0) is also consistent with the observed distribution of impact parameters if fc ≤ 0.37. The data support a scenario in which gaseous halos are patchy and likely have non-symmetric geometric distributions about the galaxies. We suggest that halo gas distributions may not be governed primarily by galaxy mass/luminosity but also by stochastic processes local to the galaxy

Galaxy Morphology - Halo Gas Connections

We studied a sample of 38 intermediate redshift MgII absorption-selected galaxies using (1) Keck/HIRES and VLT/UVES quasar spectra to measure the halo gas kinematics from MgII absorption profiles and (2) HST/WFPC-2 images to study the absorbing galaxy morphologies. We have searched for correlations between quantified gas absorption properties, and host galaxy impact parameters, inclinations, position angles, and quantified morphological parameters. We report a 3.2-sigma correlation between asymmetric perturbations in the host galaxy morphology and the MgII absorption equivalent width. We suggest that this correlation may indicate a connection between past merging and/or interaction events in MgII absorption-selected galaxies and the velocity dispersion and quantity of gas surrounding these galaxies.Comment: 6 pages; 3 figures; contributed talk for IAU 199: Probing Galaxies through Quasar Absorption Line

MgII Absorption through Intermediate Redshift Galaxies

The current status and remaining questions of MgII absorbers are reviewed with an eye toward new results incorporating high quality Hubble Space Telescope images of the absorbing galaxies. In the end, we find that our current picture of extended gaseous regions around galaxies at earlier epochs is in need of some revision; MgII absorbing "halos" appear to be patchier and their geometry less regular than previously inferred. We also find that the so-called "weak" MgII absorbers are associated with normal galaxies over a wide range of impact parameters, suggesting that this class of absorber does not strictly select low surface brightness, dwarf galaxies, or IGM material. We emphasize the need for a complete survey of the galaxies in quasar fields, and the importance of obtaining rotation curves of confirmed absorbing galaxies.Comment: 18 pages; 8 figures; review talk for IAU 199: Probing Galaxies through Quasar Absorption Line

H-alpha Imaging with HST+NICMOS of An Elusive Damped Ly-alpha Cloud at z=0.6

Despite previous intensive ground-based imaging and spectroscopic campaigns and wide-band HST imaging of the z=0.927 QSO 3C336 field, the galaxy that hosts the damped Ly-alpha system along this line-of-sight has eluded detection. We present a deep narrow-band H-alpha image of the field of this z=0.656 damped Ly-alpha absorber, obtained through the F108N filter of NICMOS 1 onboard the Hubble Space Telescope. The goal of this project was to detect any H-alpha emission 10 times closer than previous studies to unveil the damped absorber. We do not detect H-alpha emission between 0.05'' and 6'' (0.24 and 30 $h^{-1}$ kpc) from the QSO, with a 3-sigma flux limit of $3.70 \times 10^{-17} h^{-2}$ erg/s/cm^2 for an unresolved source, corresponding to a star formation rate (SFR) of $0.3 h^{-2}$ M_sun/yr. This leads to a 3-sigma upper limit of 0.15 M_sun/yr/kpc^2 on the SFR density, or a maximum SFR of 1.87 M_sun/yr assuming a disk of 4 kpc in diameter. This result adds to the number of low redshift damped Ly-alpha absorbers that are not associated with the central regions of Milky-Way-like disks. Damped Ly-alpha absorption can arise from high density concentrations in a variety of galactic environments including some that, despite their high local HI densities, are not conducive to widespread star formation.Comment: 18 pages, 3 figures. Replaced to match published version in ApJ, 550, 585 (Apr 1 2001

On the Spatial and Kinematic Distributions of Mg II Absorbing Gas in <z>=0.7 Galaxies

(Abridged) We present HIRES/Keck spectra having resolution 6 km/s of Mg II 2796 absorption profiles which arise in the gas associated with 15 identified galaxies over the redshift range 0.5 < z < 0.9. Using non-parametric rank correlation tests, we searched for correlations of the absorption strengths, saturation, and line-of-sight kinematics with the galaxy redshifts, rest frame B and K luminosities, rest colors, and impact parameters D. We found no correlations at the 2.5-sigma level between these properties. Of primary significance is the fact that the QSO-galaxy impact parameter apparently does not provide the primary distinguishing factor by which absorption properties can be characterized. The galaxy absorption properties exhibit a large scatter, which, we argue, is suggestive of a picture in which the gas arises from a variety of on-going dynamical events. Inferences from our study include: (1) The spatial distribution of absorbing gas in galaxies does not appear to follow a simple galactocentric functional dependence. (2) A single systematic kinematic model apparently cannot describe the observed velocity spreads in the absorbing gas. It is more that a heterogeneous population of sub-galaxy scale structures are giving rise to the observed cloud velocities. (3) The absorbing gas spatial distribution and kinematics may depend upon gas producing events and mechanisms that are recent to the epoch at which the absorption is observed. These distributions likely change over a few Gyr timescale. Based upon these inferences, we note that any evolution in the absorption gas properties over a larger redshift range should be directly quantifiable from a larger dataset of high-resolution absorption profiles.Comment: uuencoded: 22 pages, AASTeX file, 5 encapsulated PostScript figures; Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal; Also available for pick-up at http://www.ucolick.org/~cwc/qso/abstract.htm

Quenched Cold Accretion of a Large Scale Metal-Poor Filament due to Virial Shocking in the Halo of a Massive z=0.7 Galaxy

Using HST/COS/STIS and HIRES/Keck high-resolution spectra, we have studied a remarkable HI absorbing complex at z=0.672 toward the quasar Q1317+277. The HI absorption has a velocity spread of 1600 km/s, comprises 21 Voigt profile components, and resides at an impact parameter of D=58 kpc from a bright, high mass [log(M_vir/M_sun) ~ 13.7] elliptical galaxy that is deduced to have a 6 Gyr old, solar metallicity stellar population. Ionization models suggest the majority of the structure is cold gas surrounding a shock heated cloud that is kinematically adjacent to a multi-phase group of clouds with detected CIII, CIV and OVI absorption, suggestive of a conductive interface near the shock. The deduced metallicities are consistent with the moderate in situ enrichment relative to the levels observed in the z ~ 3 Ly-alpha forest. We interpret the HI complex as a metal-poor filamentary structure being shock heated as it accretes into the halo of the galaxy. The data support the scenario of an early formation period (z > 4) in which the galaxy was presumably fed by cold-mode gas accretion that was later quenched via virial shocking by the hot halo such that, by intermediate redshift, the cold filamentary accreting gas is continuing to be disrupted by shock heating. Thus, continued filamentary accretion is being mixed into the hot halo, indicating that the star formation of the galaxy will likely remain quenched. To date, the galaxy and the HI absorption complex provide some of the most compelling observational data supporting the theoretical picture in which accretion is virial shocked in the hot coronal halos of high mass galaxies.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Ap

The CIV-MgII Kinematics Connection in <z>~0.7 Galaxies

We have examined Faint Object Spectrograph data from the Hubble Space Telescope Archive for CIV 1548,1550 absorption associated with 40 MgII 2796,2803 absorption-selected galaxies at 0.4 < z < 1.4. We report a strong correlation between MgII kinematics, measured in 6 km/s resolution HIRES/Keck spectra, and W_r(1548); this implies a physical connection between the processes that produce "outlying velocity" MgII clouds and high ionization galactic/halo gas. We found no trend in ionization condition, W_r(1548)/W_r(2796), with galaxy-QSO line-of-sight separation for 13 systems with confirmed associated galaxies, suggesting no obvious ionization gradient with galactocentric distance in these higher redshift galaxies. We find tentative evidence (2-sigma) that W_r(1548)/W_r(2796) is anti-correlated with galaxy color; if further data corroborate this trend, in view of the strong CIV-MgII kinematics correlation, it could imply a connection between stellar populations, star formation episodes, and the kinematics and ionization conditions of halo gas at z~1.Comment: Accepted to Astrophysical Journal Letters; 4 pages; 3 figures; emulateapj.st

Halo Gas and Galaxy Disk Kinematics Derived from Observations and ΛCDM Simulations of Mg II Absorption-selected Galaxies at Intermediate Redshift

We obtained ESI/Keck rotation curves of 10 Mg II absorption-selected galaxies (0.3 ≤ z ≤ 1.0) for which we have WFPC-2/HST images and high-resolution HIRES/Keck and UVES/VLT quasar spectra of the Mg II absorption profiles. We perform a kinematic comparison of these galaxies and their associated halo Mg II absorption. For all 10 galaxies, the majority of the absorption velocities lie in the range of the observed galaxy rotation velocities. In 7/10 cases, the absorption velocities reside fully to one side of the galaxy systemic velocity and usually align with one arm of the rotation curve. In all cases, a constant rotating thick-disk model poorly reproduces the full spread of observed Mg II absorption velocities when reasonably realistic parameters are employed. In 2/10 cases, the galaxy kinematics, star formation surface densities, and absorption kinematics have a resemblance to those of high-redshift galaxies showing strong outflows. We find that Mg II absorption velocity spread and optical depth distribution may be dependent on galaxy inclination. To further aid in the spatial-kinematic relationships of the data, we apply quasar absorption-line techniques to a galaxy (v_c = 180 km s^(–1)) embedded in ΛCDM simulations. In the simulations, Mg II absorption selects metal-enriched "halo" gas out to ~100 kpc from the galaxy, tidal streams, filaments, and small satellite galaxies. Within the limitations inherent in the simulations, the majority of the simulated Mg II absorption arises in the filaments and tidal streams and is infalling toward the galaxy with velocities between –200 km s^(-1) ≤ v_r ≤ –180 km s^(–1). The Mg II absorption velocity offset distribution (relative to the simulated galaxy) spans ~200 km s^(–1) with the lowest frequency of detecting Mg II at the galaxy systematic velocity

On the Heterogeneity of Metal-Line and Ly-Alpha Absorption in Galaxy "Halos" at z~0.7

We examine the properties of two galaxy "halos" at z ~ 0.7 in the TON 153 (z_em = 1.01) quasar field. The first absorber-galaxy pair (G1) is a z = 0.672, L_B = 4.3 L*_B, E/S0 galaxy probed at D = 58 kpc. G1 is associated with a remarkable five-component Ly-alpha complex having tau_LL < 0.4, W_r(Lya) = 2.8 A, and a velocity spread of v = 1420 km/s. We find no MgII, CIV, NV, nor OVI absorption in these clouds and infer metallicity upper limits of -3 < log(Z/Z_sun) < -1, depending upon assumptions of photoionized or collisionally ionized gas. The second absorber-galaxy pair (G2) is a z = 0.661, L_B = 1.8 L*_B, Sab galaxy probed at D = 103 kpc. G2 is associated with metal--enriched (log Z/Z_sun ~ -0.4) photoionized gas having N(HI) ~ 18.3 and a velocity spread of v = 200 km/s. The very different G1 and G2 systems both have gas-galaxy properties inconsistent with the standard luminosity dependent galaxy "halo" model commonly invoked for quasar absorption line surveys. We emphasize that mounting evidence is revealing that extended galactic gaseous envelopes in the regime of D < 100 kpc do not exhibit a level of homogeneity supporting a standardized halo model. Selection effects may have played a central role in the development of a simple model. We discuss the G1 and G2 systems in the context of Lambda-CDM models of galaxy formation and suggest that the heterogeneous properties of absorber-galaxy pairs is likely related to the range of overdensities from which galaxies and gas structures arise.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, Accepted to Ap

Electron–Nuclear Interaction in 13C^{13}C Nanotube Double Quantum Dots

For coherent electron spins, hyperfine coupling to nuclei in the host material can either be a dominant source of unwanted spin decoherence or, if controlled effectively, a resource enabling storage and retrieval of quantum information. To investigate the effect of a controllable nuclear environment on the evolution of confined electron spins, we have fabricated and measured gate-defined double quantum dots with integrated charge sensors made from single-walled carbon nanotubes with a variable concentration of $^{13}C$ (nuclear spin $(I=\frac{1}{2})$ among the majority zero-nuclear-spin $^{12}C$ atoms. We observe strong isotope effects in spin-blockaded transport, and from the magnetic field dependence estimate the hyperfine coupling in $^{13}C$ nanotubes to be of the order of $100 \mu eV$, two orders of magnitude larger than anticipated. $^{13}C$-enhanced nanotubes are an interesting system for spin-based quantum information processing and memory: the $^{13}C$ nuclei differ from those in the substrate, are naturally confined to one dimension, lack quadrupolar coupling and have a readily controllable concentration from less than one to $10^5$ per electron.Physic