Circumgalactic Medium on the Largest Scales: Detecting X-Ray Absorption Lines with Large-area Microcalorimeters

BOGDAN, Akos, Ildar KHABIBULLIN, Orsolya Eszter 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 and Irina ZHURAVLEVA. Circumgalactic Medium on the Largest Scales: Detecting X-Ray Absorption Lines with Large-area Microcalorimeters. Astrophysical Journal. IOP Publishing Ltd, 2023, vol. 953, No 1, p. 1-16. ISSN 0004-637X. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acdeec.

Basic information

• Original name: Circumgalactic Medium on the Largest Scales: Detecting X-Ray Absorption Lines with Large-area Microcalorimeters
• Authors: BOGDAN, Akos, Ildar KHABIBULLIN, Orsolya Eszter KOVÁCS (348 Hungary, belonging to the institution), 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 and Irina ZHURAVLEVA.
• Edition: Astrophysical Journal, IOP Publishing Ltd, 2023, 0004-637X.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Article in a journal
• Field of Study: 10308 Astronomy
• Country of publisher: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL arXiv
• Impact factor: Impact factor: 4.900 in 2022
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14310/23:00134378
• Organization unit: Faculty of Science
• Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acdeec
• UT WoS: 001041282500001
• Keywords in English: Circumgalactic medium; Disk galaxies; Galaxy evolution; High resolution spectroscopy; X-ray astronomy; X-ray observatories; X-ray sources
• Tags: rivok
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

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 3σ–6σ confidence level. For Milky Way–type galaxies, the O VII and O VIII absorption lines are detectable at the ∼ 6σ and ∼ 3σ 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.

Links

• GX21-13491X, research and development project: Name: Zkoumání žhavého vesmíru a porozumění kosmické zpětné vazbě (Acronym: EHU)

Investor: Czech Science Foundation