J/ApJ/762/L19ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/762/L19doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.17629019CDSProchaska J.X.Hennawi J.F.Simcoe R.A.2017-12-15T10:56:06Z2014-10-22T09:15:24ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.frquasarsredshiftedline-intensitiesThe hosts of luminous z~2 quasars evolve into today's massive elliptical galaxies. Current theories predict that the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of these massive, dark matter halos (M_DM_~10^12.5^M_{sun}_) should be dominated by a T~10^7^K virialized plasma. We test this hypothesis with observations of 74 close-projected quasar pairs, using spectra of the background QSO to characterize the CGM of the foreground one. Surprisingly, our measurements reveal a cool (T~10^4^K), massive (M_CGM_>10^10^M_{sun}_), and metal-enriched (Z>~0.1Z_{sun}_) medium extending to at least the expected virial radius (r_vir_=160kpc). Furthermore, we conservatively estimate that the quasar CGM has a 64^+6^_-7_% covering fraction of optically thick gas (N_HI_>10^17.2^/cm^2^) within r_vir_; this covering factor is twice that of the contemporaneous Lyman break galaxy population. This unexpected reservoir of cool gas is rarely detected "down-the-barrel" to quasars, and hence it is likely that our background sight lines intercept gas that is shadowed from the quasar ionizing radiation by the same obscuring medium often invoked in models of active galactic nucleus unification. Because the high-z halos inhabited by quasars predate modern groups and clusters, these observations are also relevant to the formation and enrichment history of the intragroup/intracluster medium.2013ApJ...762L..19Phttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/762/L19CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic serviceIsServedByConesearch servicerelated-toV/139 : The SDSS Photometric Catalog, Release 9 (Adelman-McCarthy+, 2012)J/ApJ/755/89 : Metallicities of damped Ly{alpha} systems (Rafelski+, 2012)J/ApJ/740/91 : Ly{alpha} & OVI in galaxies around quasars (Prochaska+, 2011)J/ApJS/194/45 : QSO properties from SDSS-DR7 (Shen+, 2011)J/ApJ/727/47 : The MgII cross-section of red galaxies (Bowen+, 2011)J/ApJ/719/1672 : SDSS binary quasars at high redshift. I. (Hennawi+, 2010)J/ApJ/699/782 : High-redshift SDSS-DR5 QSOs (Diamond-Stanic+, 2009)J/ApJS/182/378 : HI and OVI absorbers in nearby Universe (Wakker+, 2009)J/ApJ/679/1144 : Galaxy clusters in LOS to background QSOs. I. (Lopez+, 2008)J/AJ/133/2222 : Clustering of high-redshift QSOs from SDSS (Shen+, 2007)J/ApJS/171/29 : UCSD/Keck Ly{alpha} Abundance Database (Prochaska+, 2007)J/AJ/131/1 : Binary quasars in the SDSS (Hennawi+, 2006)J/ApJ/651/61 : Optically thick absorbers (Hennawi+, 2006)https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/762/L19https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/762/L19http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/762/L19https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/762/L19https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/762/L19http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/762/L19GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapCone search capability for table J/ApJ/762/L19/table1 (Sample quasar pairs)https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/762/L19/table1?https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/762/L19/table1?http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/ApJ/762/L19/table1?GETtext/xml+votable180.050000true5.35875-2.87277780.0055555555555555566/4185 5162 5540 5551 5703 5709 5772 5846 5855 5944 6019 6160 6217 6409 6441 6470 6471 6523 6541 6633 7256 7503 8231 8328 8489 8494 8508 8553 8621 8623 8756 8953 9118 9182 9225 9969 9973 10311 10446 10469 10511 10724 10743 11193 11446 11803 11907 17233 17772 17836 18051 18947 19354 19387 21844 25953 25972 26237 26268 26277 26353 27054 27281 27297 27309 27654 27682 27701 27803 28332 28601 31713 31715https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/moc/J/ApJ/762/L19?format=asciiOpticaldefaultJ/ApJ/762/L19/table1Sample quasar pairsSimbadNameSimbad column added by the CDSmeta.idcharzfg[1.6/3.3] Foreground Quasar redshift estimatesrc.redshift;pos.heliocentricfloatrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintFNameForeground QSO identifier (JHHMMSS.ss+DDMMSS.s)meta.id;meta.mainchare_zfg[0.002/0.02] Uncertainty in zfgstat.errorfloatBNameBackground QSO identifier (JHHMMSS.ss+DDMMSS.s)meta.id.assoccharzbg[1.6/3.8] Background Quasar redshift estimatesrc.redshift;pos.heliocentricfloatrho[31/299] Impact parameter {rho}kpcsrc.impactParamintSepSeparation {theta} between the foreground and background quasarsarcsecpos;arith.difffloatInstSpectrum instrument identifier (SDSS, BOSS, GMOS, LRISb or MagE)meta.id;instrcharzLya[1.6/3.3] Redshift characterizing Ly{alpha} absorption in the spectrum of the background QSOsrc.redshift;pos.heliocentricfloatf_logNHILimit flag on logNHImeta.codecharlogNHI[18/21.2] Log H I column densitylog(cm**-2)phys.columnDensityfloate_logNHI[0.2/0.4]? Uncertainty in logNHIlog(cm**-2)stat.errorfloatnullablef_W1334Limit flag on W1334meta.codecharW1334[0.04/2.8]? Equivalent width of CII 1334{AA} line0.1nmspect.line.eqWidthfloatnullablee_W1334[0.02/0.3]? Uncertainty in W13340.1nmstat.errorfloatnullablef_W1548Limit flag on W1548meta.codecharW1548[0.09/2.3]? Equivalent width of CIV 1548{AA} line0.1nmspect.line.eqWidthfloatnullablee_W1548[0.01/0.3]? Uncertainty in W15480.1nmstat.errorfloatnullableOT[-1/1]? Optical thickness flag at Lyman limit: -1=thin, 1=thick, 0=ambiguousmeta.codeintnullableSloanDisplay the online SDSS data for the foreground QSOmeta.ref.urlcharNEDSimbad column added by the CDSmeta.ref.urlchar_RAPositions from Foreground quasar name (right ascension part)degpos.eq.ra;meta.main_DEPositions from Foreground quasar name (declination part)degpos.eq.dec;meta.main