COS OBSERVATIONS OF METAL LINE AND BROAD LYMAN-{alpha} ABSORPTION IN THE MULTI-PHASE O VI AND Ne VIII SYSTEM AT z = 0.20701 TOWARD HE 0226-4110
- Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 475 North Charter Street, Madison, WI 53706 (United States)
- Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, 225 Nieuwland Science Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556 (United States)
- Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram 695547, Kerala (India)
Observations of the QSO HE 0226-4110 (z{sub em} = 0.495) with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) from 1134 to 1796 A with a resolution of {approx}17 km s{sup -1} and signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) per resolution element of 20-40 are used to study the multi-phase absorption system at z = 0.20701 containing O VI and Ne VIII. The system was previously studied with lower S/N observations with Far-Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). The COS observations provide more reliable measures of the H I and metal lines present in the system and reveal the clear presence of broad Ly{alpha} (BLA) absorption with b = 72(+13, -6) km s{sup -1} and log N(H I) = 13.87 {+-} 0.08. Detecting BLAs associated with warm gas absorbers is crucial for determining the temperature, metallicity, and total baryonic content of the absorbers. The BLA is probably recording the trace amount of thermally broadened H I in the collisionally ionized plasma with log T {approx} 5.7 that also produces the O VI and Ne VIII absorption. The total hydrogen column in the collisionally ionized gas, log N(H) {approx} 20.1, exceeds that in the cooler photoionized gas in the system by a factor of {approx}22. The oxygen abundance in the collisionally ionized gas is [O/H] = -0.89 {+-} 0.08 {+-} 0.07. The absorber probably occurs in the circumgalactic environment (halo) of a foreground L = 0.25L{sub *} disk galaxy with an impact parameter of 109 h{sub 70}{sup -1} kpc identified by Mulchaey and Chen.
- OSTI ID:
- 22004424
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 743, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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