English

Metal line emission from galaxy haloes at z~1

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2023-04-12 v2 Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics

Abstract

We present a study of the metal-enriched halo gas, traced using MgII and [OII] emission lines, in two large, blind galaxy surveys - the MUSE (Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer) Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) and the MUSE Ultra Deep Field (MUDF). By stacking a sample of ~600 galaxies (stellar masses M* ~10^{6-12} Msun), we characterize for the first time the average metal line emission from a general population of galaxy haloes at 0.7 <= z <= 1.5. The MgII and [OII] line emission extends farther out than the stellar continuum emission, on average out to ~25 kpc and ~45 kpc, respectively, at a surface brightness (SB) level of 10^{-20} erg/s/cm2/arcsec2. The radial profile of the MgII SB is shallower than that of the [OII], suggesting that the resonant MgII emission is affected by dust and radiative transfer effects. The [OII] to MgII SB ratio is ~3 over ~20-40 kpc, also indicating a significant in situ origin of the extended metal emission. The average SB profiles are intrinsically brighter by a factor ~2-3 and more radially extended by a factor of ~1.3 at 1.0 < z <= 1.5 than at 0.7 <= z <= 1.0. The average extent of the metal emission also increases independently with increasing stellar mass and in overdense group environments. When considering individual detections, we find extended [OII] emission up to ~50 kpc around ~30-40 percent of the group galaxies, and extended (~30-40 kpc) MgII emission around two z~1 quasars in groups, which could arise from outflows or environmental processes.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2302.09087,
  title  = {Metal line emission from galaxy haloes at z~1},
  author = {Rajeshwari Dutta and Matteo Fossati and Michele Fumagalli and Mitchell Revalski and Emma K. Lofthouse and Dylan Nelson and Giulia Papini and Marc Rafelski and Sebastiano Cantalupo and Fabrizio Arrigoni Battaia and Pratika Dayal and Alessia Longobardi and Celine Péroux and Laura J. Prichard and J. Xavier Prochaska},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.09087},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

24 pages, 21 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS