Gas around galaxy haloes - III: hydrogen absorption signatures around galaxies and QSOs in the Sherwood simulation suite

Modern theories of galaxy formation predict that galaxies impact on their gaseous surroundings, playing the fundamental role of regulating the amount of gas converted into stars. While star-forming galaxies are believed to provide feedback through galactic winds, quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) are bel...

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Main Authors: Meiksin, Avery, Bolton, James S., Puchwein, Ewald
Format: Article
Published: Oxford University Press 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42520/
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author Meiksin, Avery
Bolton, James S.
Puchwein, Ewald
author_facet Meiksin, Avery
Bolton, James S.
Puchwein, Ewald
author_sort Meiksin, Avery
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Modern theories of galaxy formation predict that galaxies impact on their gaseous surroundings, playing the fundamental role of regulating the amount of gas converted into stars. While star-forming galaxies are believed to provide feedback through galactic winds, quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) are believed instead to provide feedback through the heat generated by accretion on to a central supermassive black hole. A quantitative difference in the impact of feedback on the gaseous environments of star-forming galaxies and QSOs has not been established through direct observations. Using the Sherwood cosmological simulations, we demonstrate that measurements of neutral hydrogen in the vicinity of star-forming galaxies and QSOs during the era of peak galaxy formation show excess Ly α absorption extending up to comoving radii of ∼150 kpc for star-forming galaxies and 300–700 kpc for QSOs. Simulations including supernovae-driven winds account for the absorption around star-forming galaxies but not QSOs.
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spelling nottingham-425202020-05-04T18:29:51Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42520/ Gas around galaxy haloes - III: hydrogen absorption signatures around galaxies and QSOs in the Sherwood simulation suite Meiksin, Avery Bolton, James S. Puchwein, Ewald Modern theories of galaxy formation predict that galaxies impact on their gaseous surroundings, playing the fundamental role of regulating the amount of gas converted into stars. While star-forming galaxies are believed to provide feedback through galactic winds, quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) are believed instead to provide feedback through the heat generated by accretion on to a central supermassive black hole. A quantitative difference in the impact of feedback on the gaseous environments of star-forming galaxies and QSOs has not been established through direct observations. Using the Sherwood cosmological simulations, we demonstrate that measurements of neutral hydrogen in the vicinity of star-forming galaxies and QSOs during the era of peak galaxy formation show excess Ly α absorption extending up to comoving radii of ∼150 kpc for star-forming galaxies and 300–700 kpc for QSOs. Simulations including supernovae-driven winds account for the absorption around star-forming galaxies but not QSOs. Oxford University Press 2017-01-23 Article PeerReviewed Meiksin, Avery, Bolton, James S. and Puchwein, Ewald (2017) Gas around galaxy haloes - III: hydrogen absorption signatures around galaxies and QSOs in the Sherwood simulation suite. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 468 (2). pp. 1893-1901. ISSN 1365-2966 Galaxies: formation Intergalactic medium Quasars: absorption lines Largescale structure of Universe https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/mnras/stx191 doi:10.1093/mnras/stx191 doi:10.1093/mnras/stx191
spellingShingle Galaxies: formation
Intergalactic medium
Quasars: absorption lines
Largescale structure of Universe
Meiksin, Avery
Bolton, James S.
Puchwein, Ewald
Gas around galaxy haloes - III: hydrogen absorption signatures around galaxies and QSOs in the Sherwood simulation suite
title Gas around galaxy haloes - III: hydrogen absorption signatures around galaxies and QSOs in the Sherwood simulation suite
title_full Gas around galaxy haloes - III: hydrogen absorption signatures around galaxies and QSOs in the Sherwood simulation suite
title_fullStr Gas around galaxy haloes - III: hydrogen absorption signatures around galaxies and QSOs in the Sherwood simulation suite
title_full_unstemmed Gas around galaxy haloes - III: hydrogen absorption signatures around galaxies and QSOs in the Sherwood simulation suite
title_short Gas around galaxy haloes - III: hydrogen absorption signatures around galaxies and QSOs in the Sherwood simulation suite
title_sort gas around galaxy haloes - iii: hydrogen absorption signatures around galaxies and qsos in the sherwood simulation suite
topic Galaxies: formation
Intergalactic medium
Quasars: absorption lines
Largescale structure of Universe
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42520/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42520/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/42520/