We study the interaction of cosmic rays (CRs) with the diffuse circumgalactic gas of Milky Way (MW) galaxy that results in hadronic $γ-$ray emission and radio synchrotron emission. We aim to constrain the CR population in our circumgalactic medium (CGM) with the help of observed isotropic $γ$-ray background (IGRB), its anisotropy and radio continuum. We modify different models of CGM gas in hydrostatic equilibrium discussed in literature by including a cosmic ray population, parametrized by $η\equiv P_{\rm CR}/P_{\rm th}$. For the simplest isothermal model, while the IGRB intensity allows $η\lesssim 3$, the anisotropy resulting from the Solar system's off-center position in MW rules out all values of $η$. For the precipitation model, in which the cooling of the CGM gas is regulated with an optimum ratio of cooling time to free-fall time,while the observed IGRB intensity allows $η\lesssim 230$, the observed anisotropy allows only very large values of $η$, of order $\gtrsim 100$. The radio continuum limits $η\lesssim 400$ for precipitation model and does not constrain isothermal model, however these constraints are mitigated by synchrotron loss time being comparable to CR diffusion time scales. These bounds are relevant for current numerical simulations that indicate a significant CR population in CGM of galaxies of MW mass.
The halo of the Milky-Way circumgalactic gas extends up to the virial radius of the Galaxy, ~250 kpc. The halo properties may be deduced from X-ray spectroscopic observations and from studies of the ram-pressure stripping of satellite dwarf galaxies. The former method is more precise but its results depend crucially on the assumed metallicity of the circumgalactic gas; the latter one does not need these assumptions. Here, the information from both approaches is combined to constrain observationally the gas metallicity and density as functions of the galactocentric distance. It is demonstrated …
We present a deep XMM-Newton observation of the Galactic halo emission in the direction of the blazar 1ES 1553+113. In order to extract the Galactic halo component from the diffuse soft X-ray emission spectrum, accurately modeling the foreground components is crucial. Here we present complex modeling of the foregrounds with unprecedented details. A careful analysis of the spectrum yields two temperature components of the halo gas (T$^{em}_1$= 10$^{6.25-6.42}$K, T$^{em}_2$= 10$^{6.68-6.92}$K). We find that these temperatures obtained from the emission spectrum are not consistent with those from…
In this article we discuss the importance of high-resolution absorption spectroscopy for our understanding of the distribution and physical nature of the gaseous circumgalactic medium (CGM) that surrounds the Milky Way. Observational and theoretical studies indicate a high complexity of the gas kinematics and an extreme multi-phase nature of the CGM in low-redshift galaxies. High-precision absorption-line measurements of the Milky Way's gas environment thus are essential to explore fundamental parameters of circumgalactic gas in the local Universe, such as mass, chemical composition, and spati…
The Milky Way galaxy is surrounded by a circumgalactic medium (CGM) that may play a key role in galaxy evolution as the source of gas for star formation and a repository of metals and energy produced by star formation and nuclear activity. The CGM may also be a repository for baryons seen in the early universe, but undetected locally. The CGM has an ionized component at temperatures near $2 \times 10^{6}$~K studied primarily in the soft X-ray band. Here we report a survey of the southern Galactic sky with a soft X-ray spectrometer optimized to study diffuse soft X-ray emission. The X-ray emiss…
We analyzed Suzaku and Chandra observations of the soft diffuse X-ray background toward four sightlines with the goal of characterizing the X-ray emission from the Milky Way circumgalactic medium (CGM). We identified two thermal components of the CGM, one at a uniform temperature of $\rm kT = 0.176\pm0.008 ~keV$ and the other at temperatures ranging between $\rm kT = 0.65-0.90~ keV$. The uniform lower temperature component is consistent with the Galaxy's virial temperature ($ \sim10^{6}~ K$). The temperatures of the hotter components are similar to that recently discovered ($\rm \sim 10^{7}~ K…
We present the Deep Synoptic Array (DSA-110) discovery and interferometric localization of the so far non-repeating FRB 20220319D. The FRB originates in a young, rapidly star-forming barred spiral galaxy, IRAS 02044$+$7048, at just 50 Mpc. Although the NE2001 and YMW16 models for the Galactic interstellar-medium (ISM) contribution to the DM of FRB 20220319D exceed its total observed DM, we show that uncertainties in these models accommodate an extragalactic origin for the burst. We derive a conservative upper limit on the DM contributed by the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of the Milky Way: the …
On the baryon budget in the X-ray-emitting circumgalactic medium of Milky Way-mass galaxies
Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik (MPE)（马克斯·普朗克地外物理研究所）；INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera（意大利国家天体物理研究所布雷拉天文台）；Como Lake Center for Astrophysics (CLAP), DiSAT, Università degli Studi dell’Insubria（因苏布里亚大学DiSAT科莫湖天体物理学中心）；Department of Astronomy, Tsinghua University（清华大学天文系）；Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院紫金山天文台）；Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan（密歇根大学天文系）；Department of Astronomy, Xiamen University（厦门大学天文系）
We discuss the production of $γ$-rays from cosmic rays (CR) in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of Andromeda (M31) in light of the recent detection of $γ$-rays from an annular region of $\sim 5.5-120$ kpc away from the M31 disc. We consider the CRs accelerated as a result of the star-formation in the M31 disk, which are lifted to the CGM by advection due to outflow and CR diffusion. The advection time scale due to bulk flow of gas triggered by star formation activity in the M31 disc is comparable ($\sim$ Gyr) to the diffusion time scale with diffusion coefficient $\ge10^{29}$ cm$^2$ s$^{-1}$ fo…
Feedback is indispensable in galaxy formation. However, lacking resolutions, cosmological simulations often use ad hoc feedback parameters. Conversely, small-box simulations, while better resolving the feedback, cannot capture gas evolution beyond the simulation domain. We aim to bridge the gap by implementing small-box results of supernovae-driven outflows into dark matter halo-scale simulations and studying their impact on large scales. Galactic outflows are multiphase, but small-box simulations show that the hot phase (T$\approx$ 10$^{6-7}$ K) carries the majority of energy and metals. We i…
The circumgalactic medium (CGM) of the Milky Way is mostly obscured by nearby gas in position-velocity space because we reside inside the Galaxy. Substantial biases exist in most studies on the Milky Way's CGM that focus on easier-to-detect high-velocity gas. With mock observations on a Milky-Way analog from the FOGGIE simulation, we investigate four observational biases related to the Milky Way's CGM. First, QSO absorption-line studies probe a limited amount of the CGM mass: only 35% of the mass is at high Galactic latitudes $|b|>20$ degrees, of which only half is moving at $|v_{\rm LSR}|\gtr…
From our position embedded within the Milky Way's interstellar medium (ISM), we have limited ability to detect gas at low relative velocities in the extended Galactic halo because those spectral lines are blended with much stronger signals from dense foreground gas. As a result, the content of the Milky Way's circumgalactic medium (CGM) is poorly constrained at $|v_{\rm LSR}|$ $\lesssim$ 150 km s$^{-1}$. To overcome this complication, the QuaStar Survey applies a spectral differencing technique using paired quasar-star sightlines to measure the obscured content of the Milky Way's CGM for the f…
For the first time, we present the simultaneous detection and characterization of three distinct phases at $>10^5$ K in $z=0$ absorption, using deep $\it{Chandra}$ observations toward Mrk 421. The extraordinarily high signal-to-noise ratio ($\geqslant60$) of the spectra has allowed us to detect a $\it{hot}$ phase of the Milky Way circumgalactic medium (CGM) at 3.2$^{+1.5}_{-0.5}\times$ 10$^7$ K, coexisting with a $\textit{warm-hot}$ phase at 1.5$\pm$0.1$\times$10$^6$ K and a $\textit{warm}$ phase at 3.0$\pm$0.4$\times$10$^5$ K. The $\textit{warm-hot}$ phase is at the virial temperature of the …
We constrain the cosmic ray (CR) population in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of Milky Way by comparing the observations of absorption lines of OVIII ion with predictions from analytical models of CGM : precipitation (PP) and isothermal (IT) model. For a CGM in hydrostatic equilibrium, the introduction of CR suppresses thermal pressure, and affects the OVIII ion abundance. We explore the allowances given to the ratio of CR pressure to thermal pressure ($\rm{P}_{\rm{CR}}/\rm{P}_{\rm{th}}=η$), with varying boundary conditions, CGM mass content, photoionization by extragalactic ultraviolet backg…
Surrounding the Milky Way (MW) is the circumgalactic medium (CGM), an extended reservoir of hot gas that has significant implications for the evolution of the MW. We used the HaloSat all-sky survey to study the CGM's soft X-ray emission in order to better define its distribution and structure. We extend a previous HaloSat study of the southern CGM (Galactic latitude b < -30 deg) to include the northern CGM (b > 30 deg) and find evidence that at least two hot gas model components at different temperatures are required to produce the observed emission. The cooler component has a typical temperat…
We use hydrodynamical simulations of two Milky Way-mass galaxies to demonstrate the impact of cosmic-ray pressure on the kinematics of cool and warm circumgalactic gas. Consistent with previous studies, we find that cosmic-ray pressure can dominate over thermal pressure in the inner 50 kpc of the circumgalactic medium (CGM), creating an overall cooler CGM than that of similar galaxy simulations run without cosmic rays. We generate synthetic sightlines of the simulated galaxies' CGM and use Voigt profile fitting methods to extract ion column densities, Doppler-b parameters, and velocity centroi…
We have carried out a controlled comparison of the structural and kinematic properties of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) around Milky Way mass galaxies in the Illustris and IllustrisTNG simulations. Very striking differences are found. At z=0, gas column density and temperature profiles at large radii ($\sim 100$ kpc) correlate strongly with disk gas mass fraction in Illustris, but not in TNG. The neutral gas at large radii is preferentially aligned in the plane of the disk in TNG, whereas it is much more isotropic in Illustris. The vertical coherence scale of the rotationally supported gas i…
To characterize the absorption properties of this circumgalactic medium (CGM) and its relation to the LG we present the so-far largest survey of metal absorption in Galactic high-velocity clouds (HVCs) using archival ultraviolet (UV) spectra of extragalactic background sources. The UV data are obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) onboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and are supplemented by 21 cm radio observations of neutral hydrogen. Along 270 sightlines we measure metal absorption in the lines of SiII, SiIII, CII, and CIV and associated HI 21 cm emission in HVCs in the vel…
Observational evidence shows that low-redshift galaxies are surrounded by extended haloes of multiphase gas, the so-called 'circumgalactic medium' (CGM). To study the survival of relatively cool gas (T < 10^5 K) in the CGM, we performed a set of hydrodynamical simulations of cold (T = 10^4 K) neutral gas clouds travelling through a hot (T = 2x10^6 K) and low-density (n = 10^-4 cm^-3) coronal medium, typical of Milky Way-like galaxies at large galactocentric distances (~ 50-150 kpc). We explored the effects of different initial values of relative velocity and radius of the clouds. Our simulatio…
We consider a model of the circumgalactic medium (CGM) in which feedback maintains a constant ratio of cooling time to freefall time throughout the halo, so that the entire CGM is marginally unstable to multiphase condensation. This 'precipitation model' is motivated by observations of multiphase gas in the cores of galaxy clusters and the halos of massive ellipticals. We derive from the model density and temperature profiles for the CGM around galaxies with masses similar to the Milky Way. After taking into consideration the geometrical position of our solar system in the Milky Way, we show t…
Galaxies are surrounded by massive gas reservoirs (i.e. the circumgalactic medium; CGM) which play a key role in their evolution. The properties of the CGM, which are dependent on a variety of internal and environmental factors, are often inferred from absorption line surveys which rely on a limited number of single lines-of-sight. In this work we present an analysis of 28 galaxy haloes selected from the Auriga project, a cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical zoom-in simulation suite of isolated Milky Way-mass galaxies, to understand the impact of CGM diversity on observational studies. Although…
We combine the Santa-Cruz Semi-Analytic Model (SAM) for galaxy formation and evolution with the circumgalactic medium (CGM) model presented in Faerman et al. (2020) to explore the CGM properties of $L^{*}$ galaxies. We use the SAM to generate a sample of galaxies with halo masses similar to the Milky Way (MW) halo, $M_{\rm vir} \approx 10^{12}~{\rm M_{sun}}$, and find that the CGM mass and mean metallicity in the sample are correlated. We use the CGM masses and metallicities of the SAM galaxies as inputs for the FSM20 model, and vary the amount of non-thermal support. The density profiles in o…
Large reservoirs of cold (~ 10^4 K) gas exist out to and beyond the virial radius in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of all types of galaxies. Photoionization modeling suggests that cold CGM gas has significantly lower densities than expected by theoretical predictions based on thermal pressure equilibrium with hot CGM gas. In this work, we investigate the impact of cosmic ray physics on the formation of cold gas via thermal instability. We use idealized three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations to follow the evolution of thermally unstable gas in a gravitationally stratified medium. W…
We assess the fraction of the Milky Way's circumgalactic medium (CGM) eluding detection due to its velocity being similar to gas in the disk. This is achieved using synthetic observations of the CGM in a simulated MW-mass galaxy that shows similar CGM kinematics to the MW and external L$\sim$L$_*$ galaxies. As viewed by a mock observer at a location similar to the Sun, only 50$\%$ (by mass) of the gas moves at high velocity ($|v_{\rm LSR}|\geq$100 km s$^{-1}$ or $|v_{\rm DEV}|\geq$50 km s$^{-1}$) in the simulated CGM and would be observable. The low velocity gas is thermodynamically similar to…
Recent studies of the circumgalactic gaseous environment of the Milky Way have concentrated on the distribution, chemical composition, and physical properties of the most massive neutral gas clouds and the highly-ionized halo absorbers. Relatively little effort has been put so far in exploring the circumgalactic neutral and weakly ionized metal absorbers at low HI column densities. With our work we systematically study the distribution and physical properties of neutral and ionised low-column density gas in the halo of the Milky Way. We combine CaII and NaI absorption line measurements with HI…
We use the TNG50 simulation of the IllustrisTNG project to study cold, dense clouds of gas in the circumgalactic media (CGM) of Milky Way-like galaxies. We find that their CGM is typically filled with of order one hundred (thousand) reasonably (marginally) resolved clouds, possible analogs of high-velocity clouds (HVCs). There is a large variation in cloud abundance from galaxy to galaxy, and the physical properties of clouds that we explore -- mass, size, metallicity, pressure, and kinematics -- are also diverse. We quantify the distributions of cloud properties and cloud-background contrasts…
We examine the effects of SMBH feedback on the CGM using a cosmological hydrodynamic simulation \citep[{\sc Romulus25};][]{Tremmel2017} and a set of four zoom-in `genetically modified' Milky Way-mass galaxies sampling different evolutionary paths. By tracing the distribution of metals in the circumgalactic medium (CGM), we show that \ion{O}{6} is a sensitive indicator of supermassive black hole (SMBH) feedback. First, we calculate the column densities of \ion{O}{6} in simulated Milky Way-mass galaxies and compare them with observations from the COS-Halos Survey. Our simulations show column den…
The TNG50 cosmological simulation produces X-ray emitting bubbles, shells, and cavities in the circumgalactic gas above and below the stellar disks of Milky Way- and Andromeda-like galaxies with morphological features reminiscent of the eROSITA and Fermi bubbles in the Galaxy. Two-thirds of the 198 MW/M31 analogues inspected in TNG50 at z=0 show one or more large-scale, coherent features of over-pressurized gas that impinge into the gaseous halo. Some of the galaxies include a succession of bubbles or shells of increasing size, ranging from a few to many tens of kpc. These are prominent in gas…
Recent observations have constrained the orbit and structure of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), implying a well-constrained pericentric passage about the Milky Way (MW) ~ 50 Myr ago. In this scenario, the LMC's gaseous disk has recently experienced maximal ram pressure stripping, suggesting the current extent of its HI disk directly probes the medium in which it is moving. From the observed stellar and HI distributions of the system we find evidence of a truncated gas profile along the windward ``leading edge' of the LMC disk, despite a far more extended stellar component. We explore the imp…
Recent theoretical studies predict that the circumgalactic medium (CGM) around low-redshift, $\sim L_*$ galaxies could have substantial nonthermal pressure support in the form of cosmic rays. However, these predictions are sensitive to the specific model of cosmic-ray transport employed, which is theoretically and observationally underconstrained. In this work, we propose a novel observational constraint for calculating the lower limit of the radially-averaged, effective cosmic-ray transport rate, $κ_{\rm min}^{\rm eff}$. Under a wide range of assumptions (so long as cosmic rays do not lose a …
We analyze the physical properties of gas in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of 132 Milky Way (MW)-like central galaxies at $z=0$ from the cosmological magneto-hydrodynamical simulation TNG50, part of the IllustrisTNG project. The properties and abundance of CGM gas across the sample are diverse, and the fractional budgets of different phases (cold, warm, and hot), as well as neutral HI mass and metal mass, vary considerably. Over our stellar mass range of $10^{10.5} < M_\star / \rm{M}_\odot < 10^{10.9}$, radial profiles of gas physical properties from $0.15 < R\rm{ / R_{\rm 200c}} < 1.0$ reve…
We explore the impact of cosmic rays (CRs) on cosmological adaptive-mesh refinement simulations of a forming 10^12 Msolar halo, focusing on the circumgalactic medium (CGM), and its resulting low-redshift structure and composition. In contrast to a run with star formation and energetic feedback but no CRs, the CR-inclusive runs feature a CGM substantially enriched with CRs and with metals to roughly 0.1 Zsolar, thanks to robust, persistent outflows from the disk. The CR-inclusive CGMs also feature more diffuse gas at lower temperatures, down to 10^4 K, than the non-CR run, with diffuse material…
We investigate a mechanism for accelerating cool (10$^4$ K) clouds in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) with cosmic rays (CRs), possibly explaining some characteristics of observed high velocity clouds (HVCs). Enforcing CRs to stream down their pressure gradient into a region of slow streaming speed results in significant buildup of CR pressure which can accelerate the CGM. We present the results of the first two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of such `CR bottlenecks,' expanding on simpler simulations in 1D from \cite{wiener17a}. Although much more investigation is required, w…
Most of the baryonic mass in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of a spiral galaxy is believed to be warm-hot, with temperature around $10^6$K. The narrow OVI absorption lines probe a somewhat cooler component at $\log \rm T(K)= 5.5$, but broad OVI absorbers have the potential to probe the hotter CGM. Here we present 376 ks Chandra LETG observations of a carefully selected galaxy in which the presence of broad OVI together with the non-detection of Lya was indicative of warm-hot gas. The strongest line expected to be present at $\approx 10^6$K is OVII $λ21.602$. There is a hint of an absorption l…
Every quasar (QSO) spectrum contains absorption-line signatures from the interstellar medium, disk-halo interface, and circumgalactic medium (CGM) of the Milky Way (MW). We analyze Hubble Space Telescope/Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) spectra of 132 QSOs to study the significance and origin of SiIV absorption at $|v_{\rm LSR}|\leq100$ km/s in the Galactic halo. The gas in the north predominantly falls in at $-50\lesssim v_{\rm LSR}\lesssim 0$ km/s, whereas in the south, no such pattern is observed. The SiIV column density has an average and a standard deviation of $\langle N_{\rm SiIV}\rang…
The warm ($\log~T\approx5$) gas is an important gaseous component in the galaxy baryonic cycle. We built a 2-dimension disk-CGM model to study the warm gas distribution of the Milky Way (MW) using the absorption line surveys of Si IV and O VI. In this model, the disk component of both ions has the same density profile ($n(r, z)=n_0\exp(-|z|/z_0)\exp(-r/r_0)$) with a scale height of $z_0=2.6\pm0.4\rm~kpc$ and a scale length of $r_0=6.1\pm1.2\rm~kpc$. For this disk component, we calculate the warm gas mass of $\log(M/M_\odot)=(7.6\pm0.2)-\log\frac{Z}{Z_\odot}$. The similar disk density profiles …
Cosmic rays (CRs) are the probes of the deep space. They allow us to study particle acceleration, chemical composition of the interstellar medium, and global properties of our Galaxy. However, until recently studies of CRs were similar to astronomical observations with blurred lenses that capture only the integral brightness of all stars in the field of view. Thanks to the recent technological developments, our "lenses" are now capable of capturing sharp images and making precise measurements of all CR species. We have a full range of unique instrumentation for direct measurements of CRs in sp…
The complex interplay of processes at the Galactic Center is at the heart of numerous past, present, and (likely) future mysteries. We aim at a more complete understanding of how spectra extending to >10 TeV result. We first construct a simplified model to account for the peculiar energy and angular dependence of the intense central parsec photon field. This allows for calculating anisotropic inverse Compton scattering and mapping gamma-ray extinction due to gamma gamma -> e^+ e^- attenuation. Coupling these with a method for evolving electron spectra, we examine several clear and present exce…
Motivated by integral field units (IFUs) on large ground telescopes and proposals for ultraviolet-sensitive space telescopes to probe circumgalactic medium (CGM) emission, we survey the most promising emission lines and how such observations can inform our understanding of the CGM and its relation to galaxy formation. We tie our emission estimates to both HST/COS absorption measurements of ions around $z\approx 0.2$ Milky Way mass halos and models for the density and temperature of gas. We also provide formulas that simplify extending our estimates to other samples and physical scenarios. We f…
We report a 3.4$σ$ detection of the warm-hot, massive, extended circumgalactic medium (CGM) around an L$^\star$ star-forming spiral galaxy NGC 3221, using deep Suzaku observations. The temperature of the gas is $10^{6.1}$ K, comparable to that of the Milky Way CGM. The spatial extent of the gas is at least $150$ kpc. For a $β$-model of density profile with solar abundance, the central emission measure is EM = $3\pm 1 \times 10^{-5}$ cm$^{-6}$ kpc and the central electron density is $n_{eo} = 4\pm 1 \times10^{-4}$ cm$^{-3}$, with a slope of $β= 0.56$. We investigate a range of $β$ values, and f…
Early onset of the hot circumgalactic medium around Milky Way galaxies
Lund University（隆德大学）；University of Bath（巴斯大学）；University of Sydney（悉尼大学）；University of Surrey（萨里大学）；Sorbonne Université（索邦大学）；University of Oxford（牛津大学）
Using spectroscopically selected galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey we present a detection of reddening due to dust in the circumgalactic medium of galaxies. We detect the mean change in the colors of "standard crayons" correlated with the presence of foreground galaxies at z ~0.05 as a function of angular separation. Following Peek & Graves (2010), we create standard crayons using passively evolving galaxies corrected for Milky Way reddening and color-redshift trends, leading to a sample with as little as 2% scatter in color. We devise methods to ameliorate possible systematic effects…
