A Stellar Feedback Origin for Neutral Hydrogen in High-Redshift Quasar-Mass Halos
Abstract
Observations of quasar pairs reveal that quasar host halos at z ~ 2 have large covering fractions of cool dense gas (≳ 60% for Lyman limit systems within a projected virial radius). Most simulations have so far failed to explain these large observed covering fractions. We analyze a new set of 15 simulated massive halos with explicit stellar feedback from the FIRE project, covering the halo mass range M_h ≈ 2 x 10^(12) - 10^(13) M_☉ at z = 2. This extends our previous analysis of the circum-galactic medium of high-redshift galaxies to more massive halos. Feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) is not included in these simulations. We find covering fractions consistent with those observed around z ~ 2 quasars. The large HI covering fractions arise from star formation-driven galactic winds, including winds from low-mass satellite galaxies that interact with the cosmological infalling filaments in which they are typically embedded. The simulated covering fractions increase with both halo mass and redshift over the ranges covered, as well as with resolution. Our simulations predict that galaxies occupying dark matter halos of mass similar to quasars but without a luminous AGN should have Lyman limit system covering fractions comparable to quasars. This prediction can be tested by measuring covering fractions transverse to sub-millimeter galaxies or to more quiescent galaxies selected based on their high stellar mass.
Additional Information
© 2016 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. Accepted 2016 May 6. Received 2016 May 5; in original form 2016 January 26. We grateful for useful discussions with Xavier Prochaska, Joe Hennawi, Ali Rahmati, Zach Hafen, Daniel Anglés-Alcázar, and Alexander Muratov. CAFG was supported by NSF grants AST-1412836 and AST-1517491, by NASA grant NNX15AB22G, and by STScI grants HST-AR-14293.001-A and HST-GO-14268.022-A. RF was supported by NASA through Hubble Fellowship grant HF-51304.01-A. EQ was supported by NASA ATP grant 12-ATP-120183, a Simons Investigator award from the Simons Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. DK was supported by NSF grant AST-1412153. Support for PFH was provided by an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, NASA ATP grant NNX14AH35G, and NSF grants AST-1411920 and AST-1455342. The simulations analysed in this Letter were run on XSEDE computational resources (allocations TG-AST120025, TG-AST130039, and TG-AST140023) and on NASA High-End Computing resources (allocations SMD-14-5492, SMD-14-5189, and SMD-15-6530).Attached Files
Published - MNRAS-2016-Faucher-Giguère-L32-6.pdf
Submitted - 1601.07188v1.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 64145
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20160202-075033622
- NSF
- AST-1412836
- NSF
- AST-1517491
- NASA
- NNX15AB22G
- NASA
- HST-AR-14293.001-A
- NASA Hubble Fellowship
- HF-51304.01-A
- NASA
- 12-ATP-120183
- Simons Foundation
- David and Lucile Packard Foundation
- NSF
- AST-1412153
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
- NASA
- NNX14AH35G
- NSF
- AST-1411920
- NSF
- AST-1455342
- NSF
- TG-AST120025
- NSF
- TG-AST130039
- NSF
- TG-AST140023
- NASA
- HST-GO-14268.022-A
- Created
-
2016-02-03Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2021-11-10Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- TAPIR