COMPOSITION OF LOW-REDSHIFT HALO GAS

Halo gas in low-z (z < 0.5) ≥0.1 L* galaxies in high-resolution, large-scale cosmological hydrodynamic simulations is examined with respect to three components: cold, warm, and hot with temperatures of <105, 105-6, and >106 K, respectively. Utilizing O VI λλ1032, 1038 absorption lines, the warm component is compared to observations, and agreement is found with respect to the galaxy-O VI line correlation, the ratio of the O VI line incidence rate in blue to red galaxies, and the amount of O VI mass in star-forming galaxies. A detailed account of the sources of warm halo gas (stellar feedback heating, gravitational shock heating, and accretion from the intergalactic medium), inflowing and outflowing warm halo gas metallicity disparities, and their dependencies on galaxy types and environment is also presented. With the warm component securely anchored, our simulations make the following additional predictions. First, cold gas is the primary component in inner regions with its mass comprising 50% of all gas within galactocentric radius r = (30, 150) kpc in (red, blue) galaxies. Second, at r > (30, 200) kpc in (red, blue) galaxies the hot component becomes the majority. Third, the warm component is a perpetual minority, with its contribution peaking at ∼30% at r = 100-300 kpc in blue galaxies and never exceeding 5% in red galaxies. The significant amount of cold gas in low-z early-type galaxies, which was found in simulations and in agreement with recent observations (Thom et al.), is intriguing, as is the dominance of hot gas at large radii in blue galaxies.