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We investigate the group-scale environment of 15 luminous quasars (luminosityL₃₀₀₀> 10⁴⁶erg s⁻¹) from the Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) at redshiftz≈ 1. Using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer integral field spectrograph on the Very Large Telescope, we conduct a deep galaxy redshift survey in the CUBS quasar fields to identify group members and measure the physical properties of individual galaxies and galaxy groups. We find that the CUBS quasars reside in diverse environments. The majority (11 out of 15) of the CUBS quasars reside in overdense environments with typical halo masses exceeding 10¹³M_⊙, while the remaining quasars reside in moderate-size galaxy groups. No correlation is observed between overdensity and redshift, black hole (BH) mass, or luminosity. Radio-loud quasars (5 out of 15 CUBS quasars) are more likely to be in overdense environments than their radio-quiet counterparts in the sample, consistent with the mean trends from previous statistical observations and clustering analyses. Nonetheless, we also observe radio-loud quasars in moderate groups and radio-quiet quasars in overdense environments, indicating a large scatter in the connection between radio properties and environment. We find that the most UV luminous quasars might be outliers in the stellar mass-to-halo mass relations or may represent departures from the standard single-epoch BH relations.

 

This paper reports the first measurement of the relationship between turbulent velocity and cloud size in the diffuse circumgalactic medium (CGM) in typical galaxy halos at redshiftz≈ 0.4–1. Through spectrally resolved absorption profiles of a suite of ionic transitions paired with careful ionization analyses of individual components, cool clumps of size as small asl_cl∼ 1 pc and density lower thann_H= 10⁻³cm⁻³are identified in galaxy halos. In addition, comparing the line widths between different elements for kinematically matched components provides robust empirical constraints on the thermal temperatureTand the nonthermal motionsb_NT, independent of the ionization models. On average,b_NTis found to increase withl_clfollowing$b_{\mathrm{NT}}\propto l_{\mathrm{cl}}^{0.3}$over three decades in spatial scale froml_cl≈ 1 pc tol_cl≈ 1 kpc. Attributing the observedb_NTto turbulent motions internal to the clumps, the best-fitb_NT–l_clrelation shows that the turbulence is consistent with Kolmogorov at <1 kpc with a roughly constant energy transfer rate per unit mass ofϵ≈ 0.003 cm²s⁻³and a dissipation timescale of ≲100 Myr. No significant difference is found between massive quiescent and star-forming halos in the sample on scales less than 1 kpc. While the inferredϵis comparable to what is found in Civabsorbers at high redshift, it is considerably smaller than observed in star-forming gas or in extended line-emitting nebulae around distant quasars. A brief discussion of possible sources to drive the observed turbulence in the cool CGM is presented.

 

This paper presents a newly established sample of 19 unique galaxies and galaxy groups at redshift z = 0.89–1.21 in six QSO fields from the Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS), designated as the CUBSz1 sample. In this sample, nine galaxies or galaxy groups show absorption features, while the other 10 systems exhibit 2σ upper limits of $\log N (\rm{He\,{\small I}})/\mbox{${\rm cm^{-2}}$}\lesssim 13.5$ and $\log N (\rm{O\,{\small V}})/\mbox{${\rm cm^{-2}}$}\lesssim 13.3$. Environmental properties of the galaxies, including galaxy overdensities, the total stellar mass and gravitational potential summed over all neighbours, and the presence of local ionizing sources, are found to have a significant impact on the observed CGM absorption properties. Specifically, massive galaxies and galaxies in overdense regions exhibit a higher rate of incidence of absorption. The CGM absorption properties in galaxy groups appear to be driven by the galaxy closest to the QSO sightline, rather than by the most massive galaxy or by mass-weighted properties. We introduce a total projected gravitational potential ψ, defined as −ψ/G = ∑Mhalo/dproj summed over all group members, to characterize the galaxy environment. This projected gravitational potential correlates linearly with the maximum density detected in each sightline (i.e. a power-law slope of $0.95_{-0.14}^{+0.15}$), consistent with higher pressure gas being confined in deeper gravitational potential wells. In addition, we find that the radial profile of cool gas density exhibits a decline from the inner regions to the outskirts, and the amplitude is consistent with the cool gas being in pressure balance with the hot halo. Finally, we note that the ionizing flux from nearby galaxies can elevate the N(H i)/N(He i) ratio, which provides a unique diagnostic of possible local sources contributing to the ionizing radiation field.

 

We present the first empirical constraints on the turbulent velocity field of the diffuse circumgalactic medium around four luminous quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) at z ≈ 0.5–1.1. Spatially extended nebulae of ≈50–100 physical kpc in diameter centred on the QSOs are revealed in [O ii] $\lambda \lambda \, 3727,3729$ and/or [O iii] $\lambda \, 5008$ emission lines in integral field spectroscopic observations obtained using Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer on the Very Large Telescope. We measure the second- and third-order velocity structure functions (VSFs) over a range of scales, from ≲5 kpc to ≈20–50 kpc, to quantify the turbulent energy transfer between different scales in these nebulae. While no constraints on the energy injection and dissipation scales can be obtained from the current data, we show that robust constraints on the power-law slope of the VSFs can be determined after accounting for the effects of atmospheric seeing, spatial smoothing, and large-scale bulk flows. Out of the four QSO nebulae studied, one exhibits VSFs in spectacular agreement with the Kolmogorov law, expected for isotropic, homogeneous, and incompressible turbulent flows. The other three fields exhibit a shallower decline in the VSFs from large to small scales. However, with a limited dynamic range in the spatial scales in seeing-limited data, no constraints can be obtained for the VSF slopes of these three nebulae. For the QSO nebula consistent with the Kolmogorov law, we determine a turbulence energy cascade rate of ≈0.2 cm2 s−3. We discuss the implication of the observed VSFs in the context of QSO feeding and feedback in the circumgalactic medium.

 

This paper presents a systematic study of the photoionization and thermodynamic properties of the cool circumgalactic medium (CGM) as traced by rest-frame ultraviolet absorption lines around 26 galaxies at redshift z ≲ 1. The study utilizes both high-quality far-ultraviolet and optical spectra of background QSOs and deep galaxy redshift surveys to characterize the gas density, temperature, and pressure of individual absorbing components and to resolve their internal non-thermal motions. The derived gas density spans more than three decades, from $\log (n_{\rm H}/{{\rm cm^{-3}}}) \approx -4$ to −1, while the temperature of the gas is confined in a narrow range of log (T/K) ≈ 4.3 ± 0.3. In addition, a weak anticorrelation between gas density and temperature is observed, consistent with the expectation of the gas being in photoionization equilibrium. Furthermore, decomposing the observed line widths into thermal and non-thermal contributions reveals that more than 30 per cent of the components at z ≲ 1 exhibit line widths driven by non-thermal motions, in comparison to <20 per cent found at z ≈ 2–3. Attributing the observed non-thermal line widths to intra-clump turbulence, we find that massive quenched galaxies on average exhibit higher non-thermal broadening/turbulent energy in their CGM compared to star-forming galaxies at z ≲ 1. Finally, strong absorption features from multiple ions covering a wide range of ionization energy (e.g. from Mg ii to O iv) can be present simultaneously in a single absorption system with kinematically aligned component structure, but the inferred pressure in different phases may differ by a factor of ≈10.

 

ABSTRACT This paper presents a survey of Mg ii absorbing gas in the vicinity of 380 random galaxies, using 156 background quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) as absorption-line probes. The sample comprises 211 isolated (73 quiescent and 138 star-forming galaxies) and 43 non-isolated galaxies with sensitive constraints for both Mg ii absorption and H α emission. The projected distances span a range from d = 9 to 497 kpc, redshifts of the galaxies range from z = 0.10 to 0.48, and rest-frame absolute B-band magnitudes range from MB = −16.7 to −22.8. Our analysis shows that the rest-frame equivalent width of Mg ii, Wr(2796), depends on halo radius (Rh), B-band luminosity(LB), and stellar mass (Mstar) of the host galaxies, and declines steeply with increasing d for isolated, star-forming galaxies. At the same time, Wr(2796) exhibits no clear trend for either isolated, quiescent galaxies or non-isolated galaxies. In addition, the covering fraction of Mg ii absorbing gas 〈κ〉 is high with 〈κ〉 ≳ 60 per cent at <40 kpc for isolated galaxies and declines rapidly to 〈κ〉 ≈ 0 at d ≳ 100 kpc. Within the gaseous radius, the incidence of Mg ii gas depends sensitively on both Mstar and the specific star formation rate inferred from H α. Different from what is known for massive quiescent haloes, the observed velocity dispersion of Mg ii absorbing gas around star-forming galaxies is consistent with expectations from virial motion, which constrains individual clump mass to $m_{\rm cl} \gtrsim 10^5 \, \rm M_\odot$ and cool gas accretion rate of $\sim 0.7\!-\!2 \, \mathrm{ M}_\odot \, \rm yr^{-1}$. Finally, we find no strong azimuthal dependence of Mg ii absorption for either star-forming or quiescent galaxies. Our results demonstrate that multiple parameters affect the properties of gaseous haloes around galaxies and highlight the need of a homogeneous, absorption-blind sample for establishing a holistic description of chemically enriched gas in the circumgalactic space. 

ABSTRACT We present a detailed study of two partial Lyman limit systems (pLLSs) of neutral hydrogen column density $N_\mathrm{H\, I}\approx (1-3)\times 10^{16}\, \mathrm{cm}^{-2}$ discovered at $z$ = 0.5 in the Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS). Available far-ultraviolet spectra from the Hubble Space Telescope Cosmic Origins Spectrograph and optical echelle spectra from MIKE on the Magellan Telescopes enable a comprehensive ionization analysis of diffuse circumgalactic gas based on resolved kinematics and abundance ratios of atomic species spanning five different ionization stages. These data provide unambiguous evidence of kinematically aligned multiphase gas that masquerades as a single-phase structure and can only be resolved by simultaneous accounting of the full range of observed ionic species. Both systems are resolved into multiple components with inferred α-element abundance varying from [α/H] ≈−0.8 to near solar and densities spanning over two decades from log nH/cm−3 ≈ −2.2 to <−4.3. Available deep galaxy survey data from the CUBS program taken with VLT/MUSE, Magellan/LDSS3-C and Magellan/IMACS reveal that the $z$ = 0.47 system is located 55 kpc from a star-forming galaxy with prominent Balmer absorption of stellar mass ${{M_{\rm star}}}\approx 2\times 10^{10}\, {{M_{\odot}}}$, while the $z$ = 0.54 system resides in an overdense environment of 11 galaxies within 750 kpc in projected distance, with the most massive being a luminous red galaxy of ${{M_{\rm star}}}\approx 2\times 10^{11}\, {{M_{\odot}}}$ at 375 kpc. The study of these two pLLSs adds to an emerging picture of the complex, multiphase circumgalactic gas that varies in chemical abundances and density on small spatial scales in diverse galaxy environments. The inhomogeneous nature of metal enrichment and density revealed in observations must be taken into account in theoretical models of diffuse halo gas. 

ABSTRACT We present a systematic investigation of physical conditions and elemental abundances in four optically thick Lyman-limit systems (LLSs) at z = 0.36–0.6 discovered within the cosmic ultraviolet baryon survey (CUBS). Because intervening LLSs at z < 1 suppress far-UV (ultraviolet) light from background QSOs, an unbiased search of these absorbers requires a near-UV-selected QSO sample, as achieved by CUBS. CUBS LLSs exhibit multicomponent kinematic structure and a complex mix of multiphase gas, with associated metal transitions from multiple ionization states such as C ii, C iii, N iii, Mg ii, Si ii, Si iii, O ii, O iii, O vi, and Fe ii absorption that span several hundred km s−1 in line-of-sight velocity. Specifically, higher column density components (log N(H i)/cm−2≳ 16) in all four absorbers comprise dynamically cool gas with $\langle T \rangle =(2\pm 1) \times 10^4\,$K and modest non-thermal broadening of $\langle b_\mathrm{nt} \rangle =5\pm 3\,$km s−1. The high quality of the QSO absorption spectra allows us to infer the physical conditions of the gas, using a detailed ionization modelling that takes into account the resolved component structures of H i and metal transitions. The range of inferred gas densities indicates that these absorbers consist of spatially compact clouds with a median line-of-sight thickness of $160^{+140}_{-50}$ pc. While obtaining robust metallicity constraints for the low density, highly ionized phase remains challenging due to the uncertain $N\mathrm{(H\, {\small I})}$, we demonstrate that the cool-phase gas in LLSs has a median metallicity of $\mathrm{[\alpha /H]_{1/2}}=-0.7^{+0.1}_{-0.2}$, with a 16–84 percentile range of [α/H] = (−1.3, −0.1). Furthermore, the wide range of inferred elemental abundance ratios ([C/α], [N/α], and [Fe/α]) indicate a diversity of chemical enrichment histories. Combining the absorption data with deep galaxy survey data characterizing the galaxy environment of these absorbers, we discuss the physical connection between star-forming regions in galaxies and diffuse gas associated with optically thick absorption systems in the z < 1 circumgalactic medium. 

We present the discovery of neutral gas detected in both damped Lyαabsorption (DLA) and Hi21 cm emission outside of the stellar body of a galaxy, the first such detection in the literature. A joint analysis between the Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey and the MeerKAT Absorption Line Survey reveals an Hibridge connecting two interacting dwarf galaxies (log (M_star/M_⊙) = 8.5 ± 0.2) that host az= 0.026 DLA with log[N(Hi)/cm⁻²] = 20.60 ± 0.05 toward the QSO J2339−5523 (z_QSO= 1.35). At impact parameters ofd= 6 and 33 kpc, the dwarf galaxies have no companions more luminous than ≈0.05L_*within at least Δv= ±300 km s⁻¹andd≈ 350 kpc. The Hi21 cm emission is spatially coincident with the DLA at the 2σ–3σlevel per spectral channel over several adjacent beams. However, Hi21 cm absorption is not detected against the radio-bright QSO; if the background UV and radio sources are spatially aligned, the gas is either warm or clumpy (with a spin temperature to covering factor ratioT_s/f_c> 1880 K). Observations with VLT-MUSE demonstrate that theα-element abundance of the ionized interstellar medium (ISM) is consistent with the DLA (≈10% solar), suggesting that the neutral gas envelope is perturbed ISM gas. This study showcases the impact of dwarf–dwarf interactions on the physical and chemical state of neutral gas outside of star-forming regions. In the SKA era, joint UV and Hi21 cm analyses will be critical for connecting the cosmic neutral gas content to galaxy environments.