488 research outputs found
Low Mass Group Environments have no Substantial Impact on the Circumgalactic Medium Metallicity
We explore how environment affects the metallicity of the circumgalactic
medium (CGM) using 13 low mass galaxy groups (2-5 galaxies) at identified near background quasars. Using quasar spectra
from HST/COS and from Keck/HIRES or VLT/UVES we measure column densities of, or
determine limits on, CGM absorption lines. We use a Markov chain Monte Carlo
approach with Cloudy to estimate metallicities of cool (K) CGM gas
within groups and compare them to CGM metallicities of 47 isolated galaxies.
Both group and isolated CGM metallicities span a wide range ([Si/H]),
where the mean group () and isolated () CGM
metallicities are similar. Group and isolated environments have similar
distributions of {\HI} column densities as a function of impact parameter.
However, contrary to isolated galaxies, we do not find an anti-correlation
between {\HI} column density and the nearest group galaxy impact parameter. We
additionally divided the groups by member luminosity ratios (i.e.,
galaxy-galaxy and galaxy-dwarf groups). While there was no significant
difference in their mean metallicities, a modest increase in sample size should
allow one to statistically identify a higher CGM metallicity in galaxy-dwarf
groups compared to galaxy-galaxy groups. We conclude that either environmental
effects have not played an important role in the metallicity of the CGM at this
stage and expect that this may only occur when galaxies are strongly
interacting or merging, or that some isolated galaxies have higher CGM
metallicities due to past interactions. Thus, environment does not seem to be
the cause of the CGM metallicity bimodality.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, 2 figure sets, 1 machine-readable tabl
The Outstanding Decisions of the United States Supreme Court in 1954
We perform a kinematic and morphological analysis of 44 star-forming galaxies at z ̃ 2 in the COSMOS legacy field using near-infrared spectroscopy from Keck/MOSFIRE and F160W imaging from CANDELS/3D-HST as part of the ZFIRE survey. Our sample consists of cluster and field galaxies from 2.0 < z < 2.5 with K-band multi-object slit spectroscopic measurements of their Hα emission lines. Hα rotational velocities and gas velocity dispersions are measured using the Heidelberg Emission Line Algorithm (HELA), which compares directly to simulated 3D data cubes. Using a suite of simulated emission lines, we determine that HELA reliably recovers input S 0.5 and angular momentum at small offsets, but V 2.2/σ g values are offset and highly scattered. We examine the role of regular and irregular morphology in the stellar mass kinematic scaling relations, deriving the kinematic measurement S 0.5, and finding {log}({S}0.5)=(0.38+/- 0.07){log}(M/{M}☉ -10)+(2.04+/- 0.03) with no significant offset between morphological populations and similar levels of scatter (̃0.16 dex). Additionally, we identify a correlation between M ⋆ and V 2.2/σ g for the total sample, showing an increasing level of rotation dominance with increasing M ⋆, and a high level of scatter for both regular and irregular galaxies. We estimate the specific angular momenta (j disk) of these galaxies and find a slope of 0.36 ± 0.12, shallower than predicted without mass-dependent disk growth, but this result is possibly due to measurement uncertainty at M ⋆ < 9.5 However, through a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test we find irregular galaxies to have marginally higher j disk values than regular galaxies, and high scatter at low masses in both populations
The Relation Between Galaxy ISM and Circumgalactic OVI Gas Kinematics Derived from Observations and CDM Simulations
We present the first galaxy-OVI absorption kinematic study for 20 absorption
systems (EW>0.1~{\AA}) associated with isolated galaxies (0.150.55) that
have accurate redshifts and rotation curves obtained using Keck/ESI. Our sample
is split into two azimuthal angle bins: major axis () and
minor axis (). OVI absorption along the galaxy major axis is
not correlated with galaxy rotation kinematics, with only 1/10 systems that
could be explained with rotation/accretion models. This is in contrast to
co-rotation commonly observed for MgII absorption. OVI along the minor axis
could be modeled by accelerating outflows but only for small opening angles,
while the majority of the OVI is decelerating. Along both axes, stacked OVI
profiles reside at the galaxy systemic velocity with the absorption kinematics
spanning the entire dynamical range of their galaxies. The OVI found in AMR
cosmological simulations exists within filaments and in halos of ~50 kpc
surrounding galaxies. Simulations show that major axis OVI gas inflows along
filaments and decelerates as it approaches the galaxy while increasing in its
level of co-rotation. Minor axis outflows in the simulations are effective
within 50-75 kpc beyond that they decelerate and fall back onto the galaxy.
Although the simulations show clear OVI kinematic signatures they are not
directly comparable to observations. When we compare kinematic signatures
integrated through the entire simulated galaxy halo we find that these
signatures are washed out due to full velocity distribution of OVI throughout
the halo. We conclude that OVI alone does not serve as a useful kinematic
indicator of gas accretion, outflows or star-formation and likely best probes
the halo virial temperature.Comment: 24 pages, 21 figures, 4 tables. Accepted to ApJ on November 14, 201
Evidence for Cold Accretion: Primitive Gas Flowing onto a Galaxy at z~0.274
We present UV and optical observations from the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph
on the Hubble Space Telescope and Keck of a z= 0.27395 Lyman limit system (LLS)
seen in absorption against the QSO PG1630+377. We detect H I absorption with
log N(HI)=17.06\pm0.05 as well as Mg II, C III, Si III, and O VI in this
system. The column densities are readily explained if this is a multi-phase
system, with the intermediate and low ions arising in a very low metallicity
([Mg/ H] =-1.71 \pm 0.06) photoionized gas. We identify via Keck spectroscopy
and Large Binocular Telescope imaging a 0.3 L_* star-forming galaxy projected
37 kpc from the QSO at nearly identical redshift (z=0.27406, \Delta v = -26
\kms) with near solar metallicity ([O/ H]=-0.20 \pm 0.15). The presence of very
low metallicity gas in the proximity of a near-solar metallicity, sub-L_*
galaxy strongly suggests that the LLS probes gas infalling onto the galaxy. A
search of the literature reveals that such low metallicity LLSs are not
uncommon. We found that 50% (4/8) of the well-studied z < 1 LLSs have
metallicities similar to the present system and show sub-L_* galaxies with rho
< 100 kpc in those fields where redshifts have been surveyed. We argue that the
properties of these primitive LLSs and their host galaxies are consistent with
those of cold mode accretion streams seen in galaxy simulations.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa
Gas Accretion in Star-Forming Galaxies
Cold-mode gas accretion onto galaxies is a direct prediction of LCDM
simulations and provides galaxies with fuel that allows them to continue to
form stars over the lifetime of the Universe. Given its dramatic influence on a
galaxy's gas reservoir, gas accretion has to be largely responsible for how
galaxies form and evolve. Therefore, given the importance of gas accretion, it
is necessary to observe and quantify how these gas flows affect galaxy
evolution. However, observational data have yet to conclusively show that gas
accretion ubiquitously occurs at any epoch. Directly detecting gas accretion is
a challenging endeavor and we now have obtained a significant amount of
observational evidence to support it. This chapter reviews the current
observational evidence of gas accretion onto star-forming galaxies.Comment: Invited review to appear in Gas Accretion onto Galaxies, Astrophysics
and Space Science Library, eds. A. J. Fox & R. Dav\'e, to be published by
Springer. This chapter includes 22 pages with 7 Figure
ZFOURGE: Extreme 5007 emission may be a common early-lifetime phase for star-forming galaxies at
Using the \prospector\ spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting code, we
analyze the properties of 19 Extreme Emission Line Galaxies (EELGs) identified
in the bluest composite SED in the \zfourge\ survey at .
\prospector\ includes a physical model for nebular emission and returns
probability distributions for stellar mass, stellar metallicity, dust
attenuation, and nonparametric star formation history (SFH). The EELGs show
evidence for a starburst in the most recent 50 Myr, with the median EELG having
a specific star formation rate (sSFR) of 4.6 Gyr and forming 15\% of its
mass in this short time. For a sample of more typical star-forming galaxies
(SFGs) at the same redshifts, the median SFG has a sSFR of 1.1 Gyr and
forms only of its mass in the last 50 Myr. We find that virtually all of
our EELGs have rising SFHs, while most of our SFGs do not. From our analysis,
we hypothesize that many, if not most, star-forming galaxies at
undergo an extreme H+[\hbox{{\rm O}\kern 0.1em{\sc iii}}] emission
line phase early in their lifetimes. In a companion paper, we obtain
spectroscopic confirmation of the EELGs as part of our {\sc MOSEL} survey. In
the future, explorations of uncertainties in modeling the UV slope for galaxies
at are needed to better constrain their properties, e.g. stellar
metallicities.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures (main figure is fig 5), accepted for publication
in Ap
Large scale structure around a z=2.1 cluster
The most prodigious starburst galaxies are absent in massive galaxy clusters
today, but their connection with large scale environments is less clear at
. We present a search of large scale structure around a galaxy
cluster core at using a set of spectroscopically confirmed galaxies.
We find that both color-selected star-forming galaxies (SFGs) and dusty
star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) show significant overdensities around the
cluster. A total of 8 DSFGs (including 3 X-ray luminous active
galactic nuclei, AGNs) and 34 SFGs are found within a 10 arcmin radius
(corresponds to 15 cMpc at ) from the cluster center and within
a redshift range of , which leads to galaxy overdensities of
and . The cluster core and
the extended DSFG- and SFG-rich structure together demonstrate an active
cluster formation phase, in which the cluster is accreting a significant amount
of material from large scale structure while the more mature core may begin to
virialize. Our finding of this DSFG-rich structure, along with a number of
other protoclusters with excess DSFGs and AGNs found to date, suggest that the
overdensities of these rare sources indeed trace significant mass
overdensities. However, it remains puzzling how these intense star formers are
triggered concurrently. Although an increased probability of galaxy
interactions and/or enhanced gas supply can trigger the excess of DSFGs, our
stacking analysis based on 850 m images and morphological analysis based
on rest-frame optical imaging do not show such enhancements of merger fraction
and gas content in this structure.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures, ApJ accepte
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