Surveying the Origin of O VI Gas at Low Redshift

Details Surveying the Origin of O VI Gas at Low Redshift Surveying the Origin of O VI Gas at Low Redshift

Aug 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002noao.prop...75p&link_type=abstract

NOAO Proposal ID #2002B-0075

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Scientific paper

A comparison of the baryonic mass density inferred from BBN with a census of visible baryonic components (i.e. galaxies, HI gas) at the present epoch indicates a significant fraction of the universe's baryons are hidden in a dark component. Theoretical investigations into these missing bayons suggest the majority lie in a hot (T ~ 10^5-7 K), low density medium which can be efficiently detected through O VI absorption. More importantly, recent STIS+FUSE surveys for O VI are consistent with this gas comprising a significant fraction of the missing baryons. Establishing the physical nature of these O VI absorbers, therefore, may have great impact on our understanding of the distribution of baryons in the universe. The principal goal of this proposal is to determine if this O VI gas arises in galactic halos, the intragroup or intracluster medium, the low density 'cosmic web' which connects collapsed objects, or a different region of the universe altogether. We are currently pursuing a program to search for galaxies associated with O VI absorbers at low redshift (z < 0.5). To accomplish this project, we will obtain deep UBVRI images of the galaxies in four fields surrounding quasars surveyed for O VI absorption. This dataset will provide accurate photometric redshifts of the z< 0.5 galaxies with L > L^*/10 and will reveal their physical characteristics. Ultimately, we will utilize the photometric redshifts to efficiently pre-select galaxies for follow-up spectroscopy on multi- slit spectrographs. By correlating the photometric and spectroscopy galaxy redshifts against the O VI absorption lines and comparing directly with detailed cosmological simulations, we will establish the origin of the O VI gas.

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