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 Article · Thu Aug 20 04:00:00 EDT 2009 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/701/2/1219; COUNTRY OF INPUT: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA)· OSTI ID:21319575

Chen, H -W ^[1]

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1. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)

We present an imaging and spectroscopic survey of galaxies in fields around QSOs HE 0226-4110, PKS 0405-123, and PG 1216+069. The fields are selected to have ultraviolet echelle spectra available, which uncover 195 Ly{alpha} absorbers and 13 O{sub VI} absorbers along the three sightlines. We obtain robust redshifts for 1104 galaxies of rest-frame absolute magnitude M{sub R} - 5log h {approx}< -16 and at projected physical distances {rho} {approx}< 4 h{sup -1} Mpc from the QSOs. Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/WFPC2 images of the fields around PKS 0405-123 and PG 1216+069 are available for studying the optical morphologies of absorbing galaxies. Combining the absorber and galaxy data, we perform a cross-correlation study to understand the physical origin of Ly{alpha} and O{sub VI} absorbers and to constrain the properties of extended gas around galaxies. The results of our study are: (1) both strong Ly{alpha} absorbers of N(H{sub I}){>=}14 and O{sub VI} absorbers exhibit a comparable clustering amplitude as emission-line-dominated galaxies and a factor of {approx} 6 weaker amplitude than absorption-line-dominated galaxies on comoving projected distance scales of r{sub p} < 3 h{sup -1} Mpc; (2) weak Ly{alpha} absorbers of N(H{sub I})<13.5 appear to cluster very weakly around galaxies; (3) none of the absorption-line-dominated galaxies at r{sub p} {<=} 250 h{sup -1} kpc has a corresponding O{sub VI} absorber to a sensitive upper limit of W(1031) {approx}< 0.03 A, while the covering fraction of O{sub VI} absorbing gas around emission-line-dominated galaxies is found to be {kappa} {approx} 64%; and (4) high-resolution images of five O{sub VI} absorbing galaxies show that these galaxies exhibit disk-like morphologies with mildly disturbed features on the edge. Together, the data indicate that O{sub VI} absorbers arise preferentially in gas-rich galaxies. In addition, tidal debris in groups/galaxy pairs may be principally responsible for the observed O{sub VI} absorbers, particularly those of W(1031)>70 mA.

• OSTI ID: 21319575
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 701; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ABSORPTION
COSMOLOGY
EMISSION
GALAXIES
IMAGES
QUASARS
RED SHIFT
TELESCOPES
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION