The circumgalactic medium in emission and absorption, from dwarf galaxies to massive quasar hosts

Abstract

The circum-galactic medium (CGM) is at the nexus of the gas inflows and outflows that regulate galaxy evolution. Consequently, the CGM provides an ideal laboratory for studying galaxy fueling, feedback, and interactions. In the last decade, the simultaneous availability of UV spectra from the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, deep integral field spectrographs, and wide galaxy redshift surveys have revolutionized our ability to characterize the CGM empirically. I will review recent progress enabled by the Cosmic Ultraviolet Baryon Survey (CUBS) and MUSE Quasar Blind Emitter Survey (MUSEQuBES), which combine these data for 31 intermediate redshift quasar fields. These surveys simultaneously provide for the first studies of physical conditions and abundances of the CGM and IGM around low-mass dwarf galaxies that constrain the physical conditions and abundances of the gas while also enabling the discovery of giant rest-frame optical emission nebulae around quasar hosts. I will highlight enlightening case studies, including filamentary accretion from 100 kpc scales into the ISM of a massive quasar host confirmed by down-the-barrel inflows observed in the UV and the first studies of relative abundances in the CGM/IGM around isolated dwarf galaxies that reveal surprisingly high metallicity and low [C/O] and [N/O] ratios, suggestive of core-collapse supernova outflows with modest mass loading.