Halo masses of Mg ii absorbers at z∼ 0.5 from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7
Abstract
We present the cross-correlation function of Mg ii absorbers with respect to a volume-limited sample of luminous red galaxies (LRGs) at z = 0.45–0.60 using the largest Mg ii absorber sample and a new LRG sample from Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. We present the clustering signal of absorbers on projected scales r_p = 0.3-35 h^(−1) Mpc in four W^(λ2796)_(r) bins spanning W^(λ2796)_(r) =0.4−5.6 Å. We found that on average Mg ii absorbers reside in haloes 〈log Mh〉 ≈ 12.1, similar to the halo mass of an L_* galaxy. We report that the weakest absorbers in our sample with W^(λ2796)_(r)=0.4−1.1 Å reside in relatively massive haloes with ⟨logM_h⟩≈12.5+0.6−1.3, while stronger absorbers reside in haloes of similar or lower masses 〈log M_h〉 ≈ 11.6+ 0.9. We compared our bias data points, b, and the frequency distribution function of absorbers, fW_r, with a simple model incorporating an isothermal density profile to mimic the distribution of absorbing gas in haloes. We also compared the bias data points with Tinker & Chen who developed halo occupation distribution models of Mg ii absorbers that are constrained by b and fW_r. The simple isothermal model can be ruled at a ≈2.8σ level mostly because of its inability to reproduce fW_r. However, b values are consistent with both models, including Tinker & Chen. In addition, we show that the mean b of absorbers does not decrease beyond W^(λ2796)_(r)≈1.6 Å. The flat or potential upturn of b for W^(λ2796)_(r)≳1.6 Å absorbers suggests the presence of additional cool gas in massive haloes.
Additional Information
© 2014 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. Accepted 2013 December 16. Received 2013 December 16; in original form 2013 August 22. First published online: February 6, 2014. It is a pleasure to thank Jeremy Tinker for helpful comments. J-RG gratefully acknowledges the financial support of a Millikan Fellowship provided by Caltech. The SDSS Mg II catalogue (S13) was funded largely by the National Science Foundation Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship (AST-1003139) and in part by the MIT Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) Direct Funding, from the Office of Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming and the John Reed UROP Fund. We are grateful to the SDSS collaboration for producing and maintaining the SDSS public data archive. Funding for the SDSS and SDSS-II has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Participating Institutions, the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Energy, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Japanese Monbukagakusho, the Max Planck Society and the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The SDSS web site is http://www.sdss.org/. The SDSS is managed by the Astrophysical Research Consortium for the Participating Institutions. The Participating Institutions are the American Museum of Natural History, Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, University of Basel, University of Cambridge, CaseWestern Reserve University, University of Chicago, Drexel University, Fermilab, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Japan Participation Group, Johns Hopkins University, the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics, the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, the Korean Scientist Group, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (LAMOST), Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), the Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics (MPA), New Mexico State University, Ohio State University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Portsmouth, Princeton University, the United States Naval Observatory and the University of Washington.Attached Files
Published - MNRAS-2014-Gauthier-342-53.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 45215
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20140425-091903108
- Caltech Millikan Fellowship
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2014-04-28Created from EPrint's datestamp field
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2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field