Kinematics of Circumgalactic O VI Gas and Disk Rotation of $z\approx0.2$ Star-forming Galaxies

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Main Authors: Ho, Stephanie H., Martin, Crystal L., Nateghi, Hasti, Kacprzak, Glenn G., Stern, Jonathan
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Ho, Stephanie H.
Martin, Crystal L.
Nateghi, Hasti
Kacprzak, Glenn G.
Stern, Jonathan
author_facet Ho, Stephanie H.
Martin, Crystal L.
Nateghi, Hasti
Kacprzak, Glenn G.
Stern, Jonathan
contents Quasar sightline observations reveal that low-ionization-state gas corotates with the galaxy disk and often at sub-centrifugal velocities, suggesting that the gas is spiraling towards the galaxy disk. However, while observations ubiquitously detect O VI absorption around low-redshift, $\sim L^*$ star-forming galaxies, the relationship between O VI and the galaxy disk, especially the kinematics, is not well-established. This work focuses on the O VI kinematics and its comparison with that of the low ions and galactic disk rotation. We present observations of 18 pairs of quasars and $z\approx0.2$ star-forming galaxies. All quasar sightlines intersect the circumgalactic medium (CGM) within 45$^\circ$ from the galaxy major axes. We show that while individual O VI velocity components do not correlate with disk rotation, the bulk of O VI gas in individual sightlines rarely counter-rotates. We then match O VI velocity components with those of low ions by minimizing the difference of their velocity centroids. The O VI velocity components with successful low-ion matches are typically found at small sightline impact parameters and are more likely to corotate with the disk. We suggest that the low-ion-matched O VI velocity components trace the gas co-spatial with the low ions near the extended disk plane in the inner CGM, whereas those without low-ion matches represent the gas at large 3D radii. While the gas at large radii is theoretically expected to kinematically correlate with the disk angular momentum, this correlation is expected to be weaker due to the higher turbulent to mean rotation velocity ration at large radii, consistent with our results.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_11664
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Kinematics of Circumgalactic O VI Gas and Disk Rotation of $z\approx0.2$ Star-forming Galaxies
Ho, Stephanie H.
Martin, Crystal L.
Nateghi, Hasti
Kacprzak, Glenn G.
Stern, Jonathan
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Quasar sightline observations reveal that low-ionization-state gas corotates with the galaxy disk and often at sub-centrifugal velocities, suggesting that the gas is spiraling towards the galaxy disk. However, while observations ubiquitously detect O VI absorption around low-redshift, $\sim L^*$ star-forming galaxies, the relationship between O VI and the galaxy disk, especially the kinematics, is not well-established. This work focuses on the O VI kinematics and its comparison with that of the low ions and galactic disk rotation. We present observations of 18 pairs of quasars and $z\approx0.2$ star-forming galaxies. All quasar sightlines intersect the circumgalactic medium (CGM) within 45$^\circ$ from the galaxy major axes. We show that while individual O VI velocity components do not correlate with disk rotation, the bulk of O VI gas in individual sightlines rarely counter-rotates. We then match O VI velocity components with those of low ions by minimizing the difference of their velocity centroids. The O VI velocity components with successful low-ion matches are typically found at small sightline impact parameters and are more likely to corotate with the disk. We suggest that the low-ion-matched O VI velocity components trace the gas co-spatial with the low ions near the extended disk plane in the inner CGM, whereas those without low-ion matches represent the gas at large 3D radii. While the gas at large radii is theoretically expected to kinematically correlate with the disk angular momentum, this correlation is expected to be weaker due to the higher turbulent to mean rotation velocity ration at large radii, consistent with our results.
title Kinematics of Circumgalactic O VI Gas and Disk Rotation of $z\approx0.2$ Star-forming Galaxies
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11664