Probing the Circumgalactic Medium of Submillimeter Galaxies with QSO Absorption Line Spectroscopy
Abstract
We present first results from an ongoing survey to characterize the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of the massive high-redshift galaxieds detected as submillimeter galaxies (SMGs). By cross-matching far-infrared-selected galaxies from Herschel with spectroscopically confirmed quasars, we constructed a sample of 163 SMG-QSO pairs with separations less than 36". We observed 62 SMG-QSO pairs with the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). These observations obtained sub-arcsecond positions of 31 SMGs and identified seven previously-thought SMG-QSO pairs as submillimeter-luminous QSOs. We are currently conducting a redshift survey of the VLA/ALMA-confirmed SMGs and acquiring high S/N UV-optical specrtoscopy of the background QSOs. For the small sample of three VLA-confirmed SMG-QSO pairs that we have the complete data set, absorption line spectra of the background QSOs allow us to analyze the CGM of SMGs for the first time, providing insight into the fuel-supply ultimately powering their tremendous starbursts. Our observations reveal strong HI Ly-alpha absorption (rest-frame equivalent widths about 2-3 A) around all three SMGs; however, none exhibit compelling evidence for strong neutral absorbers (NHI > 1017.2 cm-2) or metal absorption, allowing us to place an 1-sigma upper limit on the covering factor of optically thick HI gas around SMGs of fC < 36.9%. This is significantly lower than the covering factor around the co-eval population of luminous QSOs. Theoretical models predict that the structure of the CGM is entirely determined by dark matter halo mass. Given that that SMGs are believed to inhabit massive dark matter halos comparable to those hosting quasars, this difference in covering factor is unexpected. Therefore, our results tentatively indicate that SMGs may not have substantial cool gas reservoirs in their halos and that they may inhabit much less massive halos than previously thought.
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #229
- Pub Date:
- January 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AAS...22922207F