TY  - JOUR
A1  - Muzahid, S.
A1  - Fonseca, G.
A1  - Roberts, A.
A1  - Rosenwasser, B.
A1  - Richter, Philipp
A1  - Narayanan, A.
A1  - Churchill, C.
A1  - Charlton, J.
T1  - COS-Weak: probing the CGM using analogues of weak Mg II absorbers at z < 0.3
JF  - Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
N2  - We present a sample of 34 weak metal line absorbers at z < 0.3 selected by the simultaneous >3σ detections of the Si iiλ1260 and C iiλ1334 absorption lines, with Wr(SiII)<0.2 Å and Wr(CII)<0.3 Å, in archival HST/COS spectra. Our sample increases the number of known low-z ‘weak absorbers’ by a factor of >5. The column densities of H i and low-ionization metal lines obtained from Voigt profile fitting are used to build simple photoionization models. The inferred densities and line-of-sight thicknesses of the absorbers are in the ranges of −3.3 < log nH/cm−3 < −2.4 and ∼1 pc–50 kpc (median ≈500 pc), respectively. Most importantly, 85 per cent (50 per cent) of these absorbers show a metallicity of [Si/H]>−1.0(0.0)⁠. The fraction of systems showing near-/supersolar metallicity in our sample is significantly higher than in the H i-selected sample of Wotta et al., and the galaxy-selected sample of Prochaska et al., of absorbers probing the circum-galactic medium at similar redshift. A search for galaxies has revealed a significant galaxy-overdensity around these weak absorbers compared to random positions with a median impact parameter of 166 kpc from the nearest galaxy. Moreover, we find the presence of multiple galaxies in ≈80 per cent of the cases, suggesting group environments. The observed dN/dz of 0.8 ± 0.2 indicates that such metal-enriched, compact, dense structures are ubiquitous in the haloes of low-z group galaxies. We suggest that these are transient structures that are related to galactic outflows and/or stripping of metal-rich gas from galaxies.
KW  - galaxies: formation
KW  - galaxies: haloes
KW  - quasar: absorption line
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty529
SN  - 0035-8711
SN  - 1365-2966
VL  - 476
IS  - 4
SP  - 4965
EP  - 4986
PB  - Oxford Univ. Press
CY  - Oxford
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hani, Maan H.
A1  - Sparre, Martin
A1  - Ellison, Sara L.
A1  - Torrey, Paul
A1  - Vogelsberger, Mark
T1  - Galaxy mergers moulding the circum-galactic medium
BT  - I. The impact of a major merger
JF  - Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
N2  - Galaxies are surrounded by sizeable gas reservoirs which host a significant amount of metals: the circum-galactic medium (CGM). The CGM acts as a mediator between the galaxy and the extragalactic medium. However, our understanding of how galaxy mergers, a major evolutionary transformation, impact the CGM remains deficient. We present a theoretical study of the effect of galaxy mergers on the CGM. We use hydrodynamical cosmological zoom-in simulations of a major merger selected from the Illustris project such that the z = 0 descendant has a halo mass and stellar mass comparable to the Milky Way. To study the CGM we then re-simulated this system at a 40 times better mass resolution, and included detailed post-processing ionization modelling. Our work demonstrates the effect the merger has on the characteristic size of the CGM, its metallicity, and the predicted covering fraction of various commonly observed gas-phase species, such as H I, C IV, and O VI. We show that merger-induced outflows can increase the CGM metallicity by 0.2-0.3 dex within 0.5 Gyr post-merger. These effects last up to 6 Gyr post-merger. While the merger increases the total metal covering fractions by factors of 2-3, the covering fractions of commonly observed UV ions decrease due to the hard ionizing radiation from the active galactic nucleus, which we model explicitly. Our study of the single simulated major merger presented in this work demonstrates the significant impact that a galaxy interaction can have on the size, metallicity, and observed column densities of the CGM.
KW  - methods: numerical
KW  - galaxies: evolution
KW  - galaxies: haloes
KW  - galaxies: interactions
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx3252
SN  - 0035-8711
SN  - 1365-2966
VL  - 475
IS  - 1
SP  - 1160
EP  - 1176
PB  - Oxford Univ. Press
CY  - Oxford
ER  -