Circumgalactic Medium on the Largest Scales: Detecting X-Ray Absorption Lines with Large-area Microcalorimeters
The circumgalactic medium (CGM) plays a crucial role in galaxy evolution as it fuels star formation, retains metals ejected from the galaxies, and hosts gas flows in and out of galaxies. For Milky Way–type and more-massive galaxies, the bulk of the CGM is in hot phases best accessible at X-ray wavel...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2023-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acdeec |
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| author | Ákos Bogdán Ildar Khabibullin Orsolya E. Kovács Gerrit Schellenberger John ZuHone Joseph N. Burchett Klaus Dolag Eugene Churazov William R. Forman Christine Jones Caroline Kilbourne Ralph P. Kraft Erwin Lau Maxim Markevitch Dan McCammon Daisuke Nagai Dylan Nelson Anna Ogorzalek Benjamin D. Oppenheimer Arnab Sarkar Yuanyuan Su Nhut Truong Sylvain Veilleux Stephan Vladutescu-Zopp Irina Zhuravleva |
| author_facet | Ákos Bogdán Ildar Khabibullin Orsolya E. Kovács Gerrit Schellenberger John ZuHone Joseph N. Burchett Klaus Dolag Eugene Churazov William R. Forman Christine Jones Caroline Kilbourne Ralph P. Kraft Erwin Lau Maxim Markevitch Dan McCammon Daisuke Nagai Dylan Nelson Anna Ogorzalek Benjamin D. Oppenheimer Arnab Sarkar Yuanyuan Su Nhut Truong Sylvain Veilleux Stephan Vladutescu-Zopp Irina Zhuravleva |
| author_sort | Ákos Bogdán |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The circumgalactic medium (CGM) plays a crucial role in galaxy evolution as it fuels star formation, retains metals ejected from the galaxies, and hosts gas flows in and out of galaxies. For Milky Way–type and more-massive galaxies, the bulk of the CGM is in hot phases best accessible at X-ray wavelengths. However, our understanding of the CGM remains largely unconstrained due to its tenuous nature. A promising way to probe the CGM is via X-ray absorption studies. Traditional absorption studies utilize bright background quasars, but this method probes the CGM in a pencil beam, and, due to the rarity of bright quasars, the galaxy population available for study is limited. Large-area, high spectral resolution X-ray microcalorimeters offer a new approach to exploring the CGM in emission and absorption. Here, we demonstrate that the cumulative X-ray emission from cosmic X-ray background sources can probe the CGM in absorption. We construct column density maps of major X-ray ions from the Magneticum simulation and build realistic mock images of nine galaxies to explore the detectability of X-ray absorption lines arising from the large-scale CGM. We conclude that the O VII absorption line is detectable around individual massive galaxies at the 3 σ –6 σ confidence level. For Milky Way–type galaxies, the O VII and O VIII absorption lines are detectable at the ∼ 6 σ and ∼ 3 σ levels even beyond the virial radius when coadding data from multiple galaxies. This approach complements emission studies, does not require additional exposures, and will allow for probing the baryon budget and the CGM at the largest scales. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T03:49:58Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ecdb383d60804e16bb34a734db3a8791 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1538-4357 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T03:49:58Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astrophysical Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-ecdb383d60804e16bb34a734db3a87912023-09-03T12:29:27ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal1538-43572023-01-0195314210.3847/1538-4357/acdeecCircumgalactic Medium on the Largest Scales: Detecting X-Ray Absorption Lines with Large-area MicrocalorimetersÁkos Bogdán0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0573-7733Ildar Khabibullin1Orsolya E. Kovács2Gerrit Schellenberger3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4962-0740John ZuHone4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3175-2347Joseph N. Burchett5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1979-2197Klaus Dolag6Eugene Churazov7William R. Forman8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9478-1682Christine Jones9Caroline Kilbourne10Ralph P. Kraft11https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0765-0511Erwin Lau12https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8914-8885Maxim Markevitch13https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0144-4052Dan McCammon14https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5170-4567Daisuke Nagai15https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6766-5942Dylan Nelson16https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8421-5890Anna Ogorzalek17https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4504-2557Benjamin D. Oppenheimer18https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3391-2116Arnab Sarkar19Yuanyuan Su20Nhut Truong21Sylvain Veilleux22https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3158-6820Stephan Vladutescu-Zopp23Irina Zhuravleva24https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7630-8085Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; abogdan@cfa.harvard.eduUniversitäts-Sternwarte, Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München , Scheinerstr. 1, D-81679 München, Germany; Max Planck Institut für Astrophysik , Karl-Schwarzschild-Str.1, D-85741 Garching bei München, GermanyDepartment of Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University , Kotlářská 2, Brno, 611 37, Czech RepublicCenter for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; abogdan@cfa.harvard.eduCenter for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; abogdan@cfa.harvard.eduNew Mexico State University , Department of Astronomy, Las Cruces, NM 88001, USAUniversitäts-Sternwarte, Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München , Scheinerstr. 1, D-81679 München, Germany; Max Planck Institut für Astrophysik , Karl-Schwarzschild-Str.1, D-85741 Garching bei München, GermanyMax Planck Institut für Astrophysik , Karl-Schwarzschild-Str.1, D-85741 Garching bei München, GermanyCenter for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; abogdan@cfa.harvard.eduCenter for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; abogdan@cfa.harvard.eduNASA Goddard Space Flight Center, X-ray laboratory , Greenbelt, MD 20771, USACenter for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; abogdan@cfa.harvard.eduCenter for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; abogdan@cfa.harvard.edu; Department of Physics, University of Miami , Coral Gables, FL 33124, USANASA Goddard Space Flight Center, X-ray laboratory , Greenbelt, MD 20771, USADepartment of Physics, University of Wisconsin , Madison, WI 53706, USADepartment of Physics, Yale University , New Haven, CT 06520, USAUniversität Heidelberg , Zentrum für Astronomie, Institut für theoretische Astrophysik, Albert-Ueberle-Str. 2, D-69120 Heidelberg, GermanyNASA Goddard Space Flight Center, X-ray laboratory , Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA; Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland , College Park, MD 20742, USA5CASA, Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado , 389 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309, USAKavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA, Cambridge, MA 02138, USAUniversity of Kentucky , 505 Rose street, Lexington, KY 40506, USAMax-Planck-Institut für Astronomie , Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, GermanyDepartment of Physics, Yale University , New Haven, CT 06520, USAUniversitäts-Sternwarte, Fakultät für Physik, Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München , Scheinerstr. 1, D-81679 München, GermanyDepartment of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The University of Chicago , Chicago, IL 60637, USAThe circumgalactic medium (CGM) plays a crucial role in galaxy evolution as it fuels star formation, retains metals ejected from the galaxies, and hosts gas flows in and out of galaxies. For Milky Way–type and more-massive galaxies, the bulk of the CGM is in hot phases best accessible at X-ray wavelengths. However, our understanding of the CGM remains largely unconstrained due to its tenuous nature. A promising way to probe the CGM is via X-ray absorption studies. Traditional absorption studies utilize bright background quasars, but this method probes the CGM in a pencil beam, and, due to the rarity of bright quasars, the galaxy population available for study is limited. Large-area, high spectral resolution X-ray microcalorimeters offer a new approach to exploring the CGM in emission and absorption. Here, we demonstrate that the cumulative X-ray emission from cosmic X-ray background sources can probe the CGM in absorption. We construct column density maps of major X-ray ions from the Magneticum simulation and build realistic mock images of nine galaxies to explore the detectability of X-ray absorption lines arising from the large-scale CGM. We conclude that the O VII absorption line is detectable around individual massive galaxies at the 3 σ –6 σ confidence level. For Milky Way–type galaxies, the O VII and O VIII absorption lines are detectable at the ∼ 6 σ and ∼ 3 σ levels even beyond the virial radius when coadding data from multiple galaxies. This approach complements emission studies, does not require additional exposures, and will allow for probing the baryon budget and the CGM at the largest scales.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acdeecCircumgalactic mediumDisk galaxiesGalaxy evolutionHigh resolution spectroscopyX-ray astronomyX-ray observatories |
| spellingShingle | Ákos Bogdán Ildar Khabibullin Orsolya E. Kovács Gerrit Schellenberger John ZuHone Joseph N. Burchett Klaus Dolag Eugene Churazov William R. Forman Christine Jones Caroline Kilbourne Ralph P. Kraft Erwin Lau Maxim Markevitch Dan McCammon Daisuke Nagai Dylan Nelson Anna Ogorzalek Benjamin D. Oppenheimer Arnab Sarkar Yuanyuan Su Nhut Truong Sylvain Veilleux Stephan Vladutescu-Zopp Irina Zhuravleva Circumgalactic Medium on the Largest Scales: Detecting X-Ray Absorption Lines with Large-area Microcalorimeters The Astrophysical Journal Circumgalactic medium Disk galaxies Galaxy evolution High resolution spectroscopy X-ray astronomy X-ray observatories |
| title | Circumgalactic Medium on the Largest Scales: Detecting X-Ray Absorption Lines with Large-area Microcalorimeters |
| title_full | Circumgalactic Medium on the Largest Scales: Detecting X-Ray Absorption Lines with Large-area Microcalorimeters |
| title_fullStr | Circumgalactic Medium on the Largest Scales: Detecting X-Ray Absorption Lines with Large-area Microcalorimeters |
| title_full_unstemmed | Circumgalactic Medium on the Largest Scales: Detecting X-Ray Absorption Lines with Large-area Microcalorimeters |
| title_short | Circumgalactic Medium on the Largest Scales: Detecting X-Ray Absorption Lines with Large-area Microcalorimeters |
| title_sort | circumgalactic medium on the largest scales detecting x ray absorption lines with large area microcalorimeters |
| topic | Circumgalactic medium Disk galaxies Galaxy evolution High resolution spectroscopy X-ray astronomy X-ray observatories |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acdeec |
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