Harvey

Understanding the CGM of massive galaxies through stacked MgII absorption

The relationship between galactic star formation and the distribution of cool gas in the circum-galactic environment holds information about feedback processes and gas accretion onto galaxies. However, observational studies remain in tension, with some showing a dependence of cool gas distribution on galaxy properties and others not. We present the stacked equivalent width of the MgII doublet as a function of impact parameter in ~850,000 QSO sightlines passing within ~10Mpc of massive galaxies (> 10^11 Msol) in the SDSS CMASS sample. As found in previous work, the equivalent width of MgII decreases with increasing distance, indicating that cool halo gas becomes less prominent further from the galaxies. For these high mass galaxies, we find no significant difference in the distribution or strength of MgII within the CGM with changing stellar mass. However, galaxies with the highest star-formation rates in our sample exhibit a significantly higher MgII equivalent width at impact parameters below 1Mpc, beyond which MgII equivalent width levels off to match the level found around quenched galaxies of similar mass. In contrast, quenched galaxies show a low but gradual decline in MgII equivalent width with increasing impact parameter. This suggests that high mass galaxies with high star formation rates have a greater concentration of cool gas in their immediate surroundings, possibly due to outflows from active star formation processes.