The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2024)
A SPectroscopic survey of biased halos In the Reionization Era (ASPIRE): Impact of Galaxies on the Circumgalactic Medium Metal Enrichment at z > 6 Using the JWST and VLT
- Siwei Zou,
- Zheng Cai,
- Feige Wang,
- Xiaohui Fan,
- Jaclyn B. Champagne,
- Joseph F. Hennawi,
- Jan-Torge Schindler,
- Emanuele Paolo Farina,
- Jinyi Yang,
- Kohei Inayoshi,
- Eduardo Bañados,
- Sarah E. I. Bosman,
- Zihao Li,
- Xiaojing Lin,
- Yunjing Wu,
- Fengwu Sun,
- Ziyi Guo,
- Girish Kulkuarni,
- Mélanie Habouzit,
- Stephane Charlot,
- Jacopo Chevallard,
- Thomas Connor,
- Anna-Christina Eilers,
- Linhua Jiang,
- Xiangyu Jin,
- Koki Kakiichi,
- Mingyu Li,
- Romain A. Meyer,
- Fabian Walter,
- Huanian Zhang
Affiliations
- Siwei Zou
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China ; [email protected], [email protected]
- Zheng Cai
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China ; [email protected], [email protected]
- Feige Wang
- ORCiD
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Xiaohui Fan
- ORCiD
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Jaclyn B. Champagne
- ORCiD
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Joseph F. Hennawi
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, University of California , Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9530, USA; Leiden Observatory, Leiden University , Niels Bohrweg 2, NL-2333 CA Leiden, The Netherlands
- Jan-Torge Schindler
- ORCiD
- Leiden Observatory, Leiden University , Niels Bohrweg 2, NL-2333 CA Leiden, The Netherlands; Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie , Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
- Emanuele Paolo Farina
- ORCiD
- Gemini Observatory , NSF's NOIRLab, 670 North A’ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720, USA
- Jinyi Yang
- ORCiD
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Kohei Inayoshi
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, School of Physics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China; Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China
- Eduardo Bañados
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie , Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
- Sarah E. I. Bosman
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie , Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany; Institute for Theoretical Physics, Heidelberg University , Philosophenweg 12, D-69120, Heidelberg, Germany
- Zihao Li
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China ; [email protected], [email protected]
- Xiaojing Lin
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China ; [email protected], [email protected]
- Yunjing Wu
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China ; [email protected], [email protected]
- Fengwu Sun
- ORCiD
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Ziyi Guo
- ORCiD
- School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University , Nanjing, 210023, People's Republic of China; Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics (Nanjing University) , Ministry of Education, Nanjing 210023, People's Republic of China
- Girish Kulkuarni
- ORCiD
- Tata Institute of Fundamental Research , Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400005, India
- Mélanie Habouzit
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie , Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany; Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg , ITA, Albert-Ueberle-Str. 2, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
- Stephane Charlot
- ORCiD
- Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, Sorbonne Université , CNRS, UMR 7095, 98 bis bd Arago, F-75014, Paris, France
- Jacopo Chevallard
- ORCiD
- Scientific Support Office, Directorate of Science and Robotic Exploration , ESA/ESTEC, Keplerlaan 1, NL-2201 AZ Noordwijk, The Netherlands
- Thomas Connor
- ORCiD
- Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
- Anna-Christina Eilers
- ORCiD
- MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research , 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
- Linhua Jiang
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, School of Physics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China; Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, People's Republic of China
- Xiangyu Jin
- ORCiD
- Steward Observatory, University of Arizona , 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
- Koki Kakiichi
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics, Broida Hall, University of California , Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9530, USA
- Mingyu Li
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People's Republic of China ; [email protected], [email protected]
- Romain A. Meyer
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie , Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
- Fabian Walter
- ORCiD
- Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie , Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
- Huanian Zhang
- ORCiD
- Department of Astronomy, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan, 430074, People's Republic of China
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad23e7
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 963,
no. 1
p. L28
Abstract
We characterize the multiphase circumgalactic medium (CGM) and galaxy properties at z = 6.0–6.5 in four quasar fields from the James Webb Space Telescope A SPectroscopic survey of biased halos In the Reionization Era (ASPIRE) program. We use the Very Large Telescope/X-shooter spectra of quasar J0305–3150 to identify one new metal absorber at z = 6.2713 with multiple transitions (O i , Mg ii , Fe ii, and C ii ). They are combined with the published absorbing systems in Davies et al. at the same redshift range to form a sample of nine metal absorbers at z = 6.03–6.49. We identify eight galaxies within 1000 km s ^−1 and 350 kpc around the absorbing gas from the ASPIRE spectroscopic data, with their redshifts secured by [O iii ] ( λ λ 4959, 5007) doublets and H β emission lines. Our spectral energy distribution fitting indicates that the absorbing galaxies have stellar masses ranging from 10 ^7.2 to 10 ^8.8 M _⊙ and metallicity between 0.02 and 0.4 solar. Notably, the z = 6.2713 system in the J0305–3150 field resides in a galaxy overdensity region, which contains two (tentatively) merging galaxies within 350 kpc and seven galaxies within 1 Mpc. We measure the relative abundances of α elements to iron ([ α /Fe]) and find that the CGM gas in the most overdense region exhibits a lower [ α /Fe] ratio. Our modeling of the galaxy’s chemical abundance favors a top-heavy stellar initial mass function and hints that we may be witnessing the contribution of the first generation of Population III stars to the CGM at the end of the reionization epoch.
Keywords
