A Comparison of the Circumgalactic Medium of Present-Day Dwarf and Milky Way Galaxies using Absorption Line Analysis through Hydrodynamic Cosmological Simulations
Abstract
Dwarf galaxies are predicted to have a unique halo structure. They experience the same feedback as more massive galaxies but lack the strong gravitational potential. The structure and composition of gas around dwarfs should be different than for gas around massive galaxies. These differences would show up in quasar absorption spectra. We test this idea by examining mock quasar spectra of the circumgalactic medium of two simulated dwarf galaxies to determine the extent of their metal halos at redshift zero. The galaxies are from a cosmological zoom-in simulation using Eulerian Gasdynamics plus N-body Adaptive Refinement Tree (ART) code. Both galaxies have the same initial conditions but are simulated with different physical conditions. One uses only supernova feedback while the other adds in radiative pressure and an increase in star formation efficiency to recreate the correct stellar properties. We measure the absorption lines of several ions including MgII, CIV, OVI, SiIV, and Ly beta and compare the covering fraction, equivalent width distribution and the velocity distribution for both simulations. These are then compared to more massive halos to explore how the galaxy's mass affects their CGM structure.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #223
- Pub Date:
- January 2014
- Bibcode:
- 2014AAS...22345812V