Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Identifying Circumgalactic Medium Absorption in QSO Spectra: A Bayesian Approach

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Towson University, MD (United States)
  2. Towson University, MD (United States); University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States)
  3. Towson University, MD (United States); Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

We present a study of candidate galaxy–absorber pairs for 43 low-redshift QSO sightlines (0.06 < z < 0.85) observed with the Hubble Space Telescope/Cosmic Origins Spectrograph that lie within the footprint of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey with a statistical approach to match absorbers with galaxies near the QSO lines of sight using only the SDSS Data Release 12 photometric data for the galaxies, including estimates of their redshifts. Our Bayesian methods combine the SDSS photometric information with measured properties of the circumgalactic medium to find the most probable galaxy match, if any, for each absorber in the line-of-sight QSO spectrum. We find ~630 candidate galaxy–absorber pairs using two different statistics. The methods are able to reproduce pairs reported in the targeted spectroscopic studies upon which we base the statistics at a rate of 72%. The properties of the galaxies comprising the candidate pairs have median redshift, luminosity, and stellar mass, all estimated from the photometric data, $$z$$ = 0.13, L = 0.1$$L$$*, and $$\mathrm{log}({M}_{* }/{M}_{\odot })=9.7$$. The median impact parameter of the candidate pairs is ~430 kpc, or ~3.5 times the galaxy virial radius. The results are broadly consistent with the high Ly$$α$$ covering fraction out to this radius found in previous studies. In conclusion, this method of matching absorbers and galaxies can be used to prioritize targets for spectroscopic studies, and we present specific examples of promising systems for such follow-up.

Research Organization:
US Department of Energy (USDOE), Washington, DC (United States). Office of Science, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF)
OSTI ID:
1983192
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: The Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 923; ISSN 0004-637X
Publisher:
IOP PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (75)

An HST/COS legacy survey of intervening Si III absorption in the extended gaseous halos of low-redshift galaxies journal May 2016
On the Density of Neutral Hydrogen in Intergalactic Space. journal November 1965
On the Interaction of Radiation from Distant Sources with the Intervening Medium. journal November 1965
The Environment of Lyman- alpha Absorbers in the Sight Line toward 3C 273 journal December 1993
The gaseous extent of galaxies and the origin of Lyman-alpha absorption systems: A survey of galaxies in the fields of Hubble Space Telescope spectroscopic target QSOs journal April 1995
Interstellar MG II Absorption Lines from Low-Redshift Galaxies journal August 1995
Extended LY alpha -absorbing Halos around Nearby Galaxies journal June 1996
Absorption Lines Produced by Galactic Halos journal May 1969
The Gaseous Extent of Galaxies and the Origin of Lyα Absorption Systems. III.HubbleSpaceTelescopeImaging of Lyα‐absorbing Galaxies atz< 1 journal May 1998
The Relationship between Galaxies and Low‐Redshift Weak Lyα Absorbers in the Directions of H1821+643 and PG 1116+215 journal November 1998
The Origin of C iv Absorption Systems at Redshifts z < 1: Discovery of Extended C iv Envelopes around Galaxies journal July 2001
The Gaseous Extent of Galaxies and the Origin of Lyα Absorption Systems. V. Optical and Near‐Infrared Photometry of Lyα‐absorbing Galaxies at z  < 1 journal October 2001
Color Separation of Galaxy Types in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Imaging Data journal October 2001
The Local Lyα Forest. III. Relationship between Lyα Absorbers and Galaxies, Voids, and Superclusters journal February 2002
Lyα Absorption around Nearby Galaxies journal November 2002
The Nature of Damped Lyα Absorbing Galaxies at z ≤ 1: A Photometric Redshift Survey of Damped Lyα Absorbers journal November 2003
Probing Halos of Galaxies at Very Large Radii Using Background QSOs journal January 2005
Probing the Intergalactic Medium-Galaxy Connection toward PKS 0405-123. II. A Cross-Correlation Study of Lyα Absorbers and Galaxies at z  < 0.5 journal July 2005
PROBING THE INTERGALACTIC MEDIUM–GALAXY CONNECTION AT z < 0.5. I. A GALAXY SURVEY IN QSO FIELDS AND A GALAXY–ABSORBER CROSS-CORRELATION STUDY, journal July 2009
DIFFUSE Lyα EMITTING HALOS: A GENERIC PROPERTY OF HIGH-REDSHIFT STAR-FORMING GALAXIES journal July 2011
PROBING THE INTERGALACTIC MEDIUM/GALAXY CONNECTION. V. ON THE ORIGIN OF Lyα AND O VI ABSORPTION AT z < 0.2 journal October 2011
THE GASEOUS ENVIRONMENT OF HIGH- z GALAXIES: PRECISION MEASUREMENTS OF NEUTRAL HYDROGEN IN THE CIRCUMGALACTIC MEDIUM OF z ∼ 2-3 GALAXIES IN THE KECK BARYONIC STRUCTURE SURVEY journal April 2012
CHARACTERIZING THE CIRCUMGALACTIC MEDIUM OF NEARBY GALAXIES WITH HST /COS AND HST /STIS ABSORPTION-LINE SPECTROSCOPY journal January 2013
The Impact of Starbursts on the Circumgalactic Medium journal April 2013
THE COLUMN DENSITY DISTRIBUTION AND CONTINUUM OPACITY OF THE INTERGALACTIC AND CIRCUMGALACTIC MEDIUM AT REDSHIFT ⟨ z ⟩ = 2.4 journal May 2013
The Cos-Halos Survey: Rationale, Design, and a Census of Circumgalactic Neutral Hydrogen journal October 2013
PROBING THE LARGE AND MASSIVE CIRCUMGALACTIC MEDIUM OF A GALAXY AT z ∼ 0.2 USING A PAIR OF QUASARS journal February 2014
The Cos-Halos Survey: Physical Conditions and Baryonic mass in the Low-Redshift Circumgalactic Medium journal August 2014
Halo mass Dependence of h i and o vi Absorption: Evidence for Differential Kinematics journal August 2014
The 1% Concordance Hubble Constant journal October 2014
THE COS-DWARFS SURVEY: THE CARBON RESERVOIR AROUND SUB- L * GALAXIES journal November 2014
Connection Between the Circumgalactic Medium and the Interstellar Medium of Galaxies: Results from the Cos-Gass Survey journal October 2015
A DEEP SEARCH FOR FAINT GALAXIES ASSOCIATED WITH VERY LOW-REDSHIFT C iv ABSORBERS. II. PROGRAM DESIGN, ABSORPTION-LINE MEASUREMENTS, AND ABSORBER STATISTICS journal December 2015
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INTERGALACTIC H I/O VI AND NEARBY ( z < 0.017) GALAXIES journal May 2009
Probing the Igm/Galaxy Connection. iv. the Lco/Wfccd Galaxy Survey of 20 Fields Surrounding Uv-Bright Quasars journal March 2011
THE COS-HALOS SURVEY: KECK LRIS AND MAGELLAN MagE OPTICAL SPECTROSCOPY journal December 2011
The Cos-Halos Survey: an Empirical Description of Metal-Line Absorption in the Low-Redshift Circumgalactic Medium journal January 2013
The Eleventh and Twelfth data Releases of the Sloan Digital sky Survey: Final data from Sdss-Iii journal July 2015
Not dead yet: cool Circumgalactic gas in the Halos of Early-Type Galaxies journal October 2012
Redshifts of galaxies close to bright QSO lines of sight journal January 1997
On the connection between the intergalactic medium and galaxies: the H i–galaxy cross-correlation at z ≲ 1★ journal November 2013
Metal-line absorption around z ≈ 2.4 star-forming galaxies in the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey★ journal September 2014
Mining circumgalactic baryons in the low-redshift universe journal October 2014
On the origin of excess cool gas in quasar host haloes journal July 2015
Detection of hot, metal-enriched outflowing gas around z ≈ 2.3 star-forming galaxies in the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey journal April 2015
Photometric redshifts for the SDSS Data Release 12 journal April 2016
The multiphase circumgalactic medium traced by low metal ions in EAGLE zoom simulations journal August 2018
Characterizing circumgalactic gas around massive ellipticals at z ∼ 0.4 – II. Physical properties and elemental abundances journal December 2018
First results from the TNG50 simulation: galactic outflows driven by supernovae and black hole feedback journal August 2019
Quasar Sightline and Galaxy Evolution (QSAGE) survey – I. The galaxy environment of O vi absorbers up to z = 1.4 around PKS 0232−04 journal March 2019
The physics of the intergalactic medium journal October 2009
Analytical approximations of K-corrections in optical and near-infrared bands: Analytical approximations of K-corrections journal May 2010
A ground-based imaging study of galaxies causing damped Lyman α (DLA), sub-DLA and Lyman limit system absorption in quasar spectra★: DLA, sub-DLA and LLS galaxies journal July 2011
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): stellar mass estimates: GAMA: stellar mass estimates journal November 2011
A universal ultraviolet-optical colour-colour-magnitude relation of galaxies★: A universal galaxy photometric relation journal November 2011
The Large, Oxygen-Rich Halos of Star-Forming Galaxies Are a Major Reservoir of Galactic Metals journal November 2011
The Evolution of the Intergalactic Medium journal September 2016
The Circumgalactic Medium journal August 2017
Damped lyα Systems journal September 2005
AN HST /COS SURVEY OF THE LOW-REDSHIFT INTERGALACTIC MEDIUM. I. SURVEY, METHODOLOGY, AND OVERALL RESULTS journal January 2016
A DEEP SEARCH FOR FAINT GALAXIES ASSOCIATED WITH VERY LOW REDSHIFT C iv ABSORBERS. III. THE MASS- AND ENVIRONMENT-DEPENDENT CIRCUMGALACTIC MEDIUM journal November 2016
The Cos-Halos Survey: Origins of the Highly Ionized Circumgalactic Medium of Star-Forming Galaxies journal December 2016
The Properties of the Circumgalactic Medium in red and blue Galaxies: Results from the Cos-Gass+Cos-Halos Surveys journal December 2016
COS-burst: Observations of the Impact of Starburst-driven Winds on the Properties of the Circum-galactic Medium journal September 2017
On the CGM Fundamental Plane: The Halo Mass Dependency of Circumgalactic H i journal September 2018
Extreme Circumgalactic H i and C iii Absorption around the Most Massive, Quenched Galaxies journal November 2018
Figuring Out Gas & Galaxies in Enzo (FOGGIE). I. Resolving Simulated Circumgalactic Absorption at 2 ≤ z ≤ 2.5 journal March 2019
Relationship between the Metallicity of the Circumgalactic Medium and Galaxy Orientation journal September 2019
Column Density, Kinematics, and Thermal State of Metal-bearing Gas within the Virial Radius of z ∼ 2 Star-forming Galaxies in the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey journal October 2019
CGM2 I: The Extent of the Circumgalactic Medium Traced by Neutral Hydrogen journal April 2021
Characterizing the Circumgalactic Medium of Nearby Galaxies with HST /COS and HST /STIS Absorption-line Spectroscopy. II. Methods and Models journal May 2017
A Galaxy Redshift Survey Near HST /COS AGN Sight Lines journal July 2018
The COS Absorption Survey of Baryon Harbors: The Galaxy Database and Cross-correlation Analysis of O vi Systems journal July 2019
The Extent of Chemically Enriched Gas around Star-forming Dwarf Galaxies journal November 2017
Revealing the Dark Threads of the Cosmic Web journal March 2020

Similar Records

THE CIRCUMGALACTIC MEDIUM OF SUBMILLIMETER GALAXIES. I. FIRST RESULTS FROM A RADIO-IDENTIFIED SAMPLE
Journal Article · Sat Nov 19 23:00:00 EST 2016 · Astrophysical Journal · OSTI ID:22667189
The 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO Survey: The spectroscopic QSO catalogue
Journal Article · Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2008 · Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. · OSTI ID:1898857
GALAXY CLUSTERS IN THE LINE OF SIGHT TO BACKGROUND QUASARS. III. MULTI-OBJECT SPECTROSCOPY
Journal Article · Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · Astrophysical Journal · OSTI ID:22133960

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
Astronomy &amp; Astrophysics
Circumgalactic medium
Galactic and extragalactic astronomy
Intergalactic medium