1. The Hidden Mass and Large Spatial Extent of a Post-Starburst Galaxy
Outflow
Todd M. Tripp, et al.
Science 334, 952 (2011);
DOI: 10.1126/science.1209850
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2. REPORTS
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SOM Text
(2011). 36. M. Fumagalli et al., http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.2130 Figs. S1 to S5
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distribution seen in blind surveys of intergalactic clouds 39 (2008). 10.1126/science.1209840
the total column density and mass of the outflows
The Hidden Mass and Large Spatial are poorly constrained. Previous outflow obser-
vations were often limited to low-resolution spec-
Extent of a Post-Starburst Galaxy Outflow tra of only one or two ions (e.g., Na I or Mg II) or
relied on composite spectra that cannot yield precise
Todd M. Tripp,1* Joseph D. Meiring,1 J. Xavier Prochaska,2 Christopher N. A. Willmer,3 column densities. Without any constraints on hydro-
J. Christopher Howk,4 Jessica K. Werk,2 Edward B. Jenkins,5 David V. Bowen,5 Nicolas Lehner,4 gen (the vast bulk of the mass) or other elements
Kenneth R. Sembach,6 Christopher Thom,6 Jason Tumlinson6 and ions, these studies were forced to make highly
uncertain assumptions to correct for ionization,
Outflowing winds of multiphase plasma have been proposed to regulate the buildup of galaxies, elemental abundances, and depletion of species
but key aspects of these outflows have not been probed with observations. By using ultraviolet by dust. Lastly, galactic winds contain multiple
absorption spectroscopy, we show that “warm-hot” plasma at 105.5 kelvin contains 10 to 150 times phases with a broad range of physical conditions
more mass than the cold gas in a post-starburst galaxy wind. This wind extends to distances > 68 (6), and wind gas in the key temperature range
kiloparsecs, and at least some portion of it will escape. Moreover, the kinematical correlation of between 105 to 106 K (where radiative cooling is
the cold and warm-hot phases indicates that the warm-hot plasma is related to the interaction of maximized) is too cool to be observed in x-rays;
the cold matter with a hotter (unseen) phase at >>106 kelvin. Such multiphase winds can detection of this so-called “warm-hot” phase
remove substantial masses and alter the evolution of post-starburst galaxies. requires observations in the ultraviolet (UV).
To study the more extended gas around gal-
alaxies do not evolve in isolation. They in- galaxies (2) and eventually into elliptical-type axies, including regions affected by outflows, we
G teract with other galaxies and, more subtly,
with the gas in their immediate environ-
ments. Mergers of comparable-mass, gas-rich
galaxies with little or no star formation (3).
Mergers are not required to propel galaxy evo-
lution, however. Even relatively secluded galaxies
used the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS)
on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to obtain
high-resolution spectra of the quasi-stellar object
galaxies trigger star-formation bursts by driving accrete matter from the intergalactic medium (QSO) PG1206+459 (at redshift zQSO = 1.1625).
matter into galaxy centers, but theory predicts that (IGM), form stars, and drive matter outflows into By exploiting absorption lines imprinted on the
such starbursts are short-lived: The central gas is their halos or out of the galaxies entirely (4, 5). QSO spectrum by foreground gaseous material,
rapidly driven away by escaping galactic winds In either case, the competing processes of gas we can detect the low-density outer gaseous en-
powered by massive stars and supernova explo- inflows and outflows are expected to regulate velopes of galaxies, regions inaccessible to other
sions or by a central supermassive black hole galaxy evolution. techniques. We focus on far-ultraviolet (FUV) ab-
(1). Such feedback mechanisms could trans- Outflows are evident in some nearby objects sorption lines at rest wavelengths lrest < 912 Å.
form gas-rich spiral galaxies into post-starburst (6–9) and are ubiquitous in some types of gal- This FUV wavelength range is rich in diagnostic
axies (10–15); their speeds can exceed the escape transitions (23), including the Ne VIII 770.409,
1 velocity. Nevertheless, their broader impact on 780.324 Å doublet, a robust probe of warm-hot
Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Am-
herst, MA 01003, USA. 2University of California Observatories/ galaxy evolution is poorly understood. First, their gas, as well as banks of adjacent ionization stages.
Lick Observatory, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, full spatial extent is unknown. Previous studies The sight line to PG1206+459 pierces an absorp-
USA. 3Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (6, 9, 16–22) have revealed flows with spatial tion system, at redshift zabs = 0.927, that provides
85721, USA. 4Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, extents ranging from a few parsecs up to ~20 kilo- insights about galactic outflows. This absorber
Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA. 5Princeton University Obser-
vatory, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA. 6Space Telescope Science parsecs (kpc). However, because of their low has been studied before (24), but previous obser-
Institute, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. densities, outer regions of outflows may not have vations did not cover Ne VIII and could not pro-
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: been detected with previously used techniques, vide accurate constraints on H I in the individual
tripp@astro.umass.edu and thus the flows could be much larger. Second, absorption components.
952 18 NOVEMBER 2011 VOL 334 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org

3. REPORTS
This absorber is illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3, in- er Lyman series lines are not saturated), which H I lines were detected in at least nine compo-
cluding the COS data (25). The absorber is a enables accurate H I column density [N(H I)] mea- nents (25) spanning a large velocity range from
“partial” Lyman limit (LL) system (i.e., the high- surement (Fig. 1). A wide variety of metals and −317 to +1131 km s−1 (Figs. 1 and 2). The Ne VIII
doublet was unambiguously detected (Fig. 2)
with a total N(Ne VIII) = 1014.9 cm−2 (25), which
is ~10 times higher than any previous N(Ne VIII)
measurements in intervening absorbers (26, 27).
The component at +1131 km s−1 exceeds vescape
of any individual galaxy, and the other compo-
nents have very similar properties to the +1131
km s−1 component (25), suggesting a common
origin. Whether the other components have v >
vescape depends on the (unknown) potential well,
but allowing for projection effects and noting
that the gas is already far from the affiliated gal-
axy (see below), several of the other components
could also be escaping. Combined with detec-
tion of Ne VIII, the detections of banks of adjacent
Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on November 27, 2011
ions (N II, N III, N IV, N V; O III, O IV; S III, S IV,
S V) place tight constraints on physical condi-
tions of the gas. Notably, the velocity centroids
and profile shapes of lower and higher ioniza-
tion stages are quite similar (Fig. 3).
This strong Ne VIII/LL absorber is affiliated
with a galaxy near the QSO sight line (24, 25).
Fig. 1. (Top) Small portion of the Keck HIRES spectrum of PG1206+459 (24). Tick marks at top indicate This galaxy, which we refer to as 177_9, is the
components detected at various velocities in the Mg II 2803.53 Å transition. A velocity scale in the rest type of galaxy expected to drive a galactic su-
frame of the affiliated galaxy 177_9 is inset at bottom. Gray indicates a feature not due to Mg II 2803.53 Å. perwind (Fig. 4). Like post-starburst (11) and
(Bottom) Small portion of the ultraviolet spectrum of PG1206+459 recorded with the COS on HST that ultraluminous infrared galaxies (28), galaxy 177_9
shows H I Lyman series absorption lines (marked with ticks and labels) at the redshift of the Mg II complex in is very luminous and blue (29); based on the
the top graph, including H I Lyz through Lys (highest lines are marked but not labeled). characteristic magnitude (M*) of the z ~ 1 lumi-
nosity function from the Deep Evolutionary
Exploratory Probe 2 (DEEP2) (30), the galaxy
luminosity L = 1.8 L*. The Multiple Mirror Tel-
escope (MMT) spectrum in Fig. 4 is also similar
to those of the post-starburst galaxies in (11),
with higher Balmer series absorption lines, [O II]
emission and [Ne V] emission indicative of an
active galactic nucleus (AGN) (25). Most impor-
tantly, the galaxy has a large impact parameter
from the QSO sight line, r = 68 kpc (31), which
implies that the gaseous envelope of 177_9 has
a large spatial extent.
The component-to-component similarity of
the absorption lines (Fig. 3) suggests a related
origin. To further investigate the nature of this
absorber, we used photoionization models (32) to
derive ionization corrections and elemental abun-
dances (25). These models indicate that the indi-
vidual components have high abundances ranging
from ~0.5 to 3 times those in the Sun (table S2).
Such high abundances (or metallicities) favor an
origin in outflowing ejecta enriched by nucleo-
synthesis products from stars; at the large impact
parameter of 177_9, corotating outer-disk or halo
gas or tidal debris from a low-mass satellite gal-
axy would be expected to have much lower me-
tallicity. Tidal debris from a massive galaxy could
Fig. 2. Continuum-normalized absorption profiles (black lines) of various species detected in the LL /Mg II have high metallicity, but we are currently aware
absorber shown in Fig. 1, plotted in velocity with respect to the galaxy 177_9 redshift (i.e., v = 0 km s−1 at of only one luminous galaxy near the sight line at
z = 0.927). Labels below each absorption profile indicate the species and rest wavelength. We fitted nine the absorber redshift (33); another luminous gal-
components to the COS and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph data (24). Component centroids are axy interacting with 177_9 is not evident. The
indicated by gray lines, and the Voigt-profile fits are overplotted with red lines (25). Yellow lines indicate absorber could also be intragroup gas, but some-
contaminating features from other redshifts or transitions. The two graphs at lower left compare apparent how it must have been metal-enriched, so some
column density profiles (39) of the N V and Ne VIII doublets. type of galactic outflow is implicated in any case.
www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 334 18 NOVEMBER 2011 953

4. REPORTS
The photoionization models also constrain
the total hydrogen column (i.e., H I and H II),
and, combined with spatial extent ≥ 68 kpc, this
allows mass estimates. By using fiducial thin-
shell models (25), we find that the mass of cool,
photoionized gas in individual components
ranges from 0.6 × 108 to 14 × 108 solar masses
(M◉). However, photoionization fails (sometimes
by orders of magnitude) to produce enough S V,
N V, and Ne VIII; these species must arise in hot
gas at temperature T > 105 K. By using equi-
librium and nonequilibrium collision ionization
models (25), we find that the warm-hot gas con-
tains much more mass than the cold gas, with
individual components harboring 10 × 108 to
400 × 108 M◉ in hot material. These are rough
estimates with many uncertainties. For example,
if the absorption arises in thin filaments analo-
Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on November 27, 2011
gous to those seen in starburst galaxies (6) or
AGN bubbles (34), the cold-gas mass could
reduce to ~106 M◉ per component. However, as
in the thin-shell models, the warm-hot gas could
harbor 10 to 150 times more mass in such
filaments (25). In either case (shells or filaments),
given the similarity of the cold and warm-hot
absorption lines (Fig. 3), the Ne VIII–bearing
plasma must be a transitional phase that links the
colder and hotter material and thus provides
insights on the outflow physics. The Ne VIII/N V
phase is not photoionized, so it must be generated
through interaction of the cold gas with a hotter
ambient medium analogous to x-ray–emitting
regions seen in nearby galaxies. How this occurs
is an open question; the absorbers could be
Fig. 3. Comparison of apparent column density profiles (39) of the LL absorber affiliated with material cooling from the hot phase down to the
galaxy 177_9. In each graph, the C II 687.05 Å profile (black histogram) is compared to another cool gas, or the cool clouds could have a hotter
species (colored circles) as labeled at upper left; the comparison species profile is also scaled by the and more-ionized surface that is evaporating.
factor in parentheses after the species label. Gray lines indicate regions contaminated by unrelated Low-density plasma in the T = 105 to 106 K
absorption. As in Fig. 2, v = 0 km s−1 at z = 0.927. range has been effectively hidden from most
Fig. 4. Montage of observations of the galaxy at
zgal = 0.927 that drives a large-scale outflow of
metal-enriched plasma. (Top left) The galaxy, and
the background QSO that reveals the outflow via
absorption spectroscopy, is shown in a multicolor
image obtained with the Large Binocular Telescope.
This galaxy, which we refer to as 177_9, is the red
object 8.63 arc sec south of the bright QSO PG1206
+459 (zQSO = 1.1625) at a position angle of 177° (N
through E) from the QSO. At the galaxy redshift, the
angular separation from the QSO sight line corre-
sponds to an impact parameter of 68 kpc. (Top right)
The large red circle indicates the rest-frame U-B
color and absolute B magnitude of 177_9 compared
to all galaxies from the DEEP2 survey (gray scale)
(30) and DEEP2 galaxies within T0.05 of z(177_9)
(cyan points). The small purple circles show post-
starburst galaxies from (11). (Bottom) An MMT
optical spectrum of 177_9 (upper trace) with its
1s uncertainty (lower trace). The strong feature
at ≈ 7600 Å is partially due to telluric absorption.
954 18 NOVEMBER 2011 VOL 334 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org

5. REPORTS
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20. F. Hamann et al., Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 410, 1957 Support for HST program number 11741 was provided
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(2011). by NASA through a grant from the Space Telescope
in (36) showed outflowing Mg II absorption with 21. G. A. Kriss et al., Astron. Astrophys. 534, 41 (2011). Science Institute, which is operated by the Association
maximum (radial) velocities of 500 to 2400 km s−1, 22. D. M. Capellupo, F. Hamann, J. C. Shields, P. Rodríguez of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Incorporated,
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77 and 100% of the post-starburst and AGN (2011). was provided by NASA grant NNX08AJ44G. The DEEP2
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Online. U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, the
the effects of large-scale outflows on galaxy evo- 26. B. D. Savage, N. Lehner, B. P. Wakker, K. R. Sembach, Japanese Monbukagakusho, and the Max Planck Society.
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sented here but with larger samples (38), with 27. A. Narayanan et al., Astrophys. J. 730, 15 (2011). data and the referees for review comments that
which it will be possible to statistically track how 28. Y. Chen, J. D. Lowenthal, M. S. Yun, Astrophys. J. 712, significantly improved this paper. We are also grateful to
1385 (2010). the Hawaiian people for graciously allowing us to conduct
outflows affect galaxies. 29. The galaxy appears to be red in Fig. 4 because of its observations from Mauna Kea, a revered place in
redshift; in the rest frame of the galaxy, it has a very the culture of Hawaii. The HST data in this paper
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metal-poor gas (metallicity that is less than 10%
A Reservoir of Ionized Gas in the of that of the Sun, or Z ≲ 0.1 Z◉) to flow onto
galaxies along dense intergalactic filaments (1).
Galactic Halo to Sustain Star However, galaxies may also exchange mass with
the local intergalactic medium (IGM) through
outflows driven by galactic “feedback,” galactic
Formation in the Milky Way winds powered by massive stars and their death
and from massive black holes. Some of this ma-
Nicolas Lehner* and J. Christopher Howk terial may return to the central galaxy as recycled
infalling matter—the galactic fountain mechanism
Without a source of new gas, our Galaxy would exhaust its supply of gas through the formation (2, 3). The circumgalactic medium about a gal-
of stars. Ionized gas clouds observed at high velocity may be a reservoir of such gas, but their axy is thus a complicated blend of outflowing
distances are key for placing them in the galactic halo and unraveling their role. We have used metal-rich and infalling metal-poor gas. The rela-
the Hubble Space Telescope to blindly search for ionized high-velocity clouds (iHVCs) in the tive importance of these processes is poorly con-
foreground of galactic stars. We show that iHVCs with 90 ≤ |vLSR| ≲ 170 kilometers per second strained observationally. Here, we demonstrate
(where vLSR is the velocity in the local standard of rest frame) are within one galactic radius of the that ionized gas in the local galactic halo provides
Sun and have enough mass to maintain star formation, whereas iHVCs with |vLSR| ≳ 170 kilometers a major supply of matter for fueling ongoing star
per second are at larger distances. These may be the next wave of infalling material. formation.
he time scale for gas consumption via star eous fuel in the disks of galaxies for continued
T formation in spiral galaxies is far shorter
than a Hubble time (13.8 billion years),
requiring an ongoing replenishment of the gas-
star formation. Analytical models and hydrody-
namical simulations have emphasized the impor-
tance of cold-stream accretion as a means for
Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame, 225
Nieuwland Science Hall, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA.
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
nlehner@nd.edu
www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL 334 18 NOVEMBER 2011 955