Metal-line absorption around z ≈ 2.4 star-forming galaxies in the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey

Abstract

We study metal absorption around 854 z ≈ 2.4 star-forming galaxies taken from the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey. The galaxies examined in this work lie in the fields of 15 hyperluminous background quasi-stellar objects, with galaxy impact parameters ranging from 35 proper kpc (pkpc) to 2 proper Mpc (pMpc). Using the pixel optical depth technique, we present the first galaxy-centred 2D maps of the median absorption by O VI, N V, C IV, C III, and Si IV, as well as updated results for H I. At small galactocentric radii we detect a strong enhancement of the absorption relative to randomly located regions that extend out to at least 180 pkpc in the transverse direction, and ±240 km s^(−1) along the line of sight (LOS, ∼1 pMpc in the case of pure Hubble flow) for all ions except N V. For C IV (and H I) we detect a significant enhancement of the absorption signal out to 2 pMpc in the transverse direction, corresponding to the maximum impact parameter in our sample. After normalizing the median absorption profiles to account for variations in line strengths and detection limits, in the transverse direction we find no evidence for a sharp drop-off in metals distinct from that of H I. We argue instead that non-detection of some metal-line species in the extended circumgalactic medium is consistent with differences in the detection sensitivity. Along the LOS, the normalized profiles reveal that the enhancement in the absorption is more extended for O VI, C IV, and Si IV than for H I. We also present measurements of the scatter in the pixel optical depths, covering fractions, and equivalent widths as a function of projected galaxy distance. Limiting the sample to the 340 galaxies with redshifts measured from nebular emission lines does not decrease the extent of the enhancement along the LOS compared to that in the transverse direction. This rules out redshift errors as the source of the observed redshift-space anisotropy and thus implies that we have detected the signature of gas peculiar velocities from infall, outflows, or virial motions for H I, O VI, C IV, C III, and Si IV.

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