Abstract

Koplitz
Metals in the Circumgalactic Medium of DIISC Galaxies
The Circumgalactic Medium (CGM) is instrumental in the evolution of galaxies and a major player in their baryon cycles. The interface between the CGM and galactic disk is particularly important as it can show signatures of gas accretion and outflows driven by stellar winds, supernovae, and AGN. I will present our investigation into the metal absorption features associated with the CGM of 35 local (z ≲ 0.05) galaxies as part of the Deciphering the Interplay Between the Interstellar medium, Stars, & Circumgalactic medium (DIISC) survey. The DIISC survey has the advantage of characterizing the CGM in terms of a galaxy’s H I disk (R(H I)). Our data find it to be a better tracer of the cool metals content. We also find more metal rich clouds (in both number and content) closer to galaxies, indicative of precipitation occurring in their CGM. Sightlines where we do not detect metal lines such as Si II, C II, and Si III are at distances greater than ~2 R(H I). The distribution of absorption – line components tell us that the inner CGM has numerous cool gas clouds whose number density increase as we move closer to the disk. This indicates a likely pathway by which gas condenses into galaxies.