Browsing by Author "Noterdaeme, P."

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    Directly constraining the spatial coherence of the z ∼ 1 circumgalactic medium
    (2023) Afruni, A.; Lopez, S.; Anshul, P.; Tejos, N.; Noterdaeme, P.; Berg, T. A. M.; Ledoux, C.; Solimano, M.; Gonzalez-Lopez, J.; Gronke, M.; Barrientos Parra, Luis Felipe; Johnston, E. J.
    One of the biggest puzzles regarding the circumgalactic medium (CGM) is the structure of its cool (T ∼ 104 K) gas phase. While the kinematics of quasar absorption systems suggests the CGM is composed of a population of different clouds, constraining their extent and spatial distribution has proven challenging, both from theoretical and observational points of view. In this work, we study the spatial structure of the z ∼ 1 CGM with unprecedented detail via resolved spectroscopy of giant gravitational arcs. We put together a sample of Mg IIλλ2796, 2803 detections obtained with VLT/MUSE in 91 spatially independent and contiguous sight lines toward 3 arcs, each probing an isolated star-forming galaxy believed to be detected in absorption. We constrain the coherence scale of this gas (Clength) - which represents the spatial scale over which the Mg II equivalent width (EW) remains constant - by comparing EW variations measured across all sight lines with empirical models. We find 1.4 < Clength/kpc < 7.8 (95% confidence). This measurement, of unprecedented accuracy, represents the scale over which the cool gas tends to cluster in separate structures. We argue that, if Clength is a universal property of the CGM, it needs to be reproduced by current and future theoretical models in order for us to understand the exact role of this medium in galaxy evolution....
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    Mapping the spatial extent of H I-rich absorbers using Mg II absorption along gravitational arcs
    (2025) Berg, T. A. M.; Afruni, A.; Ledoux, C.; López, S.; Noterdaeme, P.; Tejos, N.; Hernández Guajardo, Joaquín Aléxis; Barrientos, Luis Felipe; Johnston, E. J.
    H I-rich absorbers seen within quasar spectra contain the bulk of neutral gas in the Universe. However, the spatial extent of these reservoirs are not extensively studied due to the pencil beam nature of quasar sightlines. Using two giant gravitational arc fields (at redshifts 1.17 and 2.06) as 2D background sources with known strong Mg II absorption observed with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer integral field spectrograph (IFS), we investigated whether spatially mapped Mg II absorption can predict the presence of strong H I systems, and determine both the physical extent and H I mass of the two absorbing systems. We created a simple model of an ensemble of gas clouds in order to simultaneously predict the H I column density and gas covering fraction of H I-rich absorbers based on observations of the Mg II rest-frame equivalent width in IFS spaxels. We first test the model on the lensing field with H I observations already available from the literature, finding that we can recover H I column densities consistent with the previous estimates (although with large uncertainties). We then use our framework to simultaneously predict the gas covering fraction, H I column density and total H I gas mass (MHI) for both fields. We find that both of the observed strong systems have a covering fraction of ≈ 70% and are likely damped Lyman α systems (DLAs) with MHI > 109 M⊙. Our model shows that the typical Mg II metrics used in the literature to identify the presence of DLAs are sensitive to the gas covering fraction. However, these Mg II metrics are still sensitive to strong H I, and can be still applied to absorbers towards gravitational arcs or other spatially extended background sources. Based on our results, we speculate that the two strong absorbers are likely representative of a neutral inner circumgalactic medium and are a significant reservoir of fuel for star formation within the host galaxies.
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    Orientation effects on cool gas absorption from gravitational-arc tomography of a z=0.77 disc galaxy
    (2022) Fernandez-Figueroa, A.; Lopez, S.; Tejos, N.; Berg, T. A. M.; Ledoux, C.; Noterdaeme, P.; Afruni, A.; Barrientos, L. F.; Gonzalez-Lopez, J.; Hamel, M.; Johnston, E. J.; Katsianis, A.; Sharon, K.; Solimano, M.
    We use spatially resolved spectroscopy of a distant giant gravitational arc to test orientation effects on Mg ii absorption equivalent width (EW) and covering fraction () in the circumgalactic medium of a foreground star-forming galaxy (G1) at z similar to 0.77. Forty-two spatially-binned arc positions uniformly sample impact parameters (D) to G1 between 10 and 30 kpc and azimuthal angles alpha between 30 degrees and 90 degrees (minor axis). We find an EW-D anticorrelation, akin to that observed statistically in quasar absorber studies, and an apparent correlation of both EW and with alpha, revealing a non-isotropic gas distribution. In line with our previous results on Mg ii kinematics suggesting the presence of outflows in G1, at minimum a simple 3D static double-cone model (to represent the trace of bipolar outflows) is required to recreate the EW spatial distribution. The D and alpha values probed by the arc cannot confirm the presence of a disc, but the data highly disfavour a disc alone. Our results support the interpretation that the EW-alpha correlation observed statistically using other extant probes is partly shaped by bipolar metal-rich winds.