Constraints on the Metal Enrichment History from Observations of Highly Ionized Gas

Details Constraints on the Metal Enrichment History from Observations of Highly Ionized Gas Constraints on the Metal Enrichment History from Observations of Highly Ionized Gas

Jul 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001hst..prop.9213r&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #9213

Physics

Hst Proposal Id #9213 Quasar Absorption Lines And Igm

Scientific paper

Galaxies up to very high redshifts appear to be embedded in a highly ionized, metal enriched gas of unknown origin. Based on the presence of OVI absorption in QSO spectra this gas has sometimes been speculatively associated with a hot collisionally ionized phase, possibly ejected by winds or stripped from galaxies moving through an ambient medium. Recent hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy formation suggest an alternative explanation in that OVI may also trace diffuse photoionized gas ejected at high redshift during a `Population III' phase of star formation. In the latter case the gas would now be at a relatively low temperature, surrounding galaxies out to large distances, and falling into them at the epoch of observation. Both scenarios, current ejection of hot collisionally ionized gas {``galactic origin''} or infall of pre-enriched gas onto forming galaxies {``pre-galactic origin''} have observational consequences pertaining to the measurable absorption line width, column density, and cross- section. Studying absorption by the OVI gas in several ionic transitions in the high quality STIS spectra of QSOs already in the HST archive should be able to tell us which ionization process is responsible for the presence of OVI, and how widely intergalactic metal enrichment has spread, as a function of time.

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