MUSEQuBES: Physical conditions, origins, and multi-element abundances of the circumgalactic medium of an isolated, star-forming dwarf galaxy at z=0.57

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Main Authors: Johnson, Sean D., Mishra, Nishant, Muzahid, Sowgat, Rudie, Gwen C., Zahedy, Fakhri S., Qu, Zhijie, Faucher-Giguère, Claude-André, Stern, Jonathan, Li, Jennifer I-Hsiu, Fuller, Elise, Cantalupo, Sebastiano, Chen, Hsiao-Wen, Kadri, Ahmad, Kumar, Suyash, Liu, Zhuoqi Will, Walth, Gregory
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Published: 2025
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author Johnson, Sean D.
Mishra, Nishant
Muzahid, Sowgat
Rudie, Gwen C.
Zahedy, Fakhri S.
Qu, Zhijie
Faucher-Giguère, Claude-André
Stern, Jonathan
Li, Jennifer I-Hsiu
Fuller, Elise
Cantalupo, Sebastiano
Chen, Hsiao-Wen
Kadri, Ahmad
Kumar, Suyash
Liu, Zhuoqi Will
Walth, Gregory
author_facet Johnson, Sean D.
Mishra, Nishant
Muzahid, Sowgat
Rudie, Gwen C.
Zahedy, Fakhri S.
Qu, Zhijie
Faucher-Giguère, Claude-André
Stern, Jonathan
Li, Jennifer I-Hsiu
Fuller, Elise
Cantalupo, Sebastiano
Chen, Hsiao-Wen
Kadri, Ahmad
Kumar, Suyash
Liu, Zhuoqi Will
Walth, Gregory
contents In dwarf galaxy models, outflows expel metal-enriched interstellar medium (ISM) into the circumgalactic medium (CGM) to reproduce their observed low metallicities, but measurements of dwarf CGM properties are scarce. We present a study of the CGM of an isolated dwarf at $z=0.5723$ with a stellar mass of $\approx5\times10^7\rm\,M_{\odot}$ and star-formation rate ($\approx0.05\,\rm M_\odot\,yr^{-1}$) and ISM metallicity ($\rm [O/H]\approx-0.9$) consistent with the star-forming main sequence and mass-metallicity relation. A background quasar sightline with archival UV spectra probes the dwarf's CGM at a projected distance of 28 kpc, corresponding to approximately half of the estimated virial radius. The dwarf's CGM is detected in \ion{H}{1}, intermediate metal ions of \ion{C}{3}, \ion{O}{3}, \ion{O}{4}, and \textcolor{black}{\ion{S}{5}}, and kinematically broader, highly-ionized \ion{O}{6}, but is undetected in \ion{N}{4} and \ion{Ne}{8}. Photoionization modeling of the intermediate ions indicates a modest volume-filling factor ($\sim 6\%$ along the sightline or $\sim 2\%$ globally), and a mass of $\sim2\times10^8 {\rm\,M_\odot}$, $\sim4\times$ higher than the dwarf's stellar mass, but $\sim10\times$ less than the highly ionized CGM. The \ion{O}{6} kinematics are comparable to the dwarf's estimated virial velocity, suggesting it is likely associated with cool, photoionized, and volume-filling CGM, with bulk motion or turbulence dominating over thermal pressure. The metallicity inferred for the intermediate ions is $\rm [O/H]=-0.6$, but with low relative abundances of $\rm [C/O]=-0.6$ and \textcolor{black}{$\rm [N/O]<-1.0$}. The [N/O] is below levels expected of the dwarf's ISM, but consistent with core-collapse supernova ejecta, suggesting that supernova-enriched gas escaped the dwarf without mixing significantly with ISM enriched in nitrogen from evolved, low-mass stars.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_06310
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle MUSEQuBES: Physical conditions, origins, and multi-element abundances of the circumgalactic medium of an isolated, star-forming dwarf galaxy at z=0.57
Johnson, Sean D.
Mishra, Nishant
Muzahid, Sowgat
Rudie, Gwen C.
Zahedy, Fakhri S.
Qu, Zhijie
Faucher-Giguère, Claude-André
Stern, Jonathan
Li, Jennifer I-Hsiu
Fuller, Elise
Cantalupo, Sebastiano
Chen, Hsiao-Wen
Kadri, Ahmad
Kumar, Suyash
Liu, Zhuoqi Will
Walth, Gregory
Astrophysics of Galaxies
In dwarf galaxy models, outflows expel metal-enriched interstellar medium (ISM) into the circumgalactic medium (CGM) to reproduce their observed low metallicities, but measurements of dwarf CGM properties are scarce. We present a study of the CGM of an isolated dwarf at $z=0.5723$ with a stellar mass of $\approx5\times10^7\rm\,M_{\odot}$ and star-formation rate ($\approx0.05\,\rm M_\odot\,yr^{-1}$) and ISM metallicity ($\rm [O/H]\approx-0.9$) consistent with the star-forming main sequence and mass-metallicity relation. A background quasar sightline with archival UV spectra probes the dwarf's CGM at a projected distance of 28 kpc, corresponding to approximately half of the estimated virial radius. The dwarf's CGM is detected in \ion{H}{1}, intermediate metal ions of \ion{C}{3}, \ion{O}{3}, \ion{O}{4}, and \textcolor{black}{\ion{S}{5}}, and kinematically broader, highly-ionized \ion{O}{6}, but is undetected in \ion{N}{4} and \ion{Ne}{8}. Photoionization modeling of the intermediate ions indicates a modest volume-filling factor ($\sim 6\%$ along the sightline or $\sim 2\%$ globally), and a mass of $\sim2\times10^8 {\rm\,M_\odot}$, $\sim4\times$ higher than the dwarf's stellar mass, but $\sim10\times$ less than the highly ionized CGM. The \ion{O}{6} kinematics are comparable to the dwarf's estimated virial velocity, suggesting it is likely associated with cool, photoionized, and volume-filling CGM, with bulk motion or turbulence dominating over thermal pressure. The metallicity inferred for the intermediate ions is $\rm [O/H]=-0.6$, but with low relative abundances of $\rm [C/O]=-0.6$ and \textcolor{black}{$\rm [N/O]<-1.0$}. The [N/O] is below levels expected of the dwarf's ISM, but consistent with core-collapse supernova ejecta, suggesting that supernova-enriched gas escaped the dwarf without mixing significantly with ISM enriched in nitrogen from evolved, low-mass stars.
title MUSEQuBES: Physical conditions, origins, and multi-element abundances of the circumgalactic medium of an isolated, star-forming dwarf galaxy at z=0.57
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.06310