Kinematics of the Circumgalactic Medium of a $z = 0.77$ Galaxy from MgII Tomography

Kris Mortensen, Keerthi Vasan G. C., Tucker Jones, Claude-Andre Faucher-Giguere, Ryan Sanders, Richard S. Ellis, Nicha Leethochawalit, Daniel P. Stark

Published 2020-05-29Version 1

Galaxy evolution is thought to be driven in large part by the flow of gas between galaxies and the circumgalactic medium (CGM), a halo of metal-enriched gas extending out to $\gtrsim100$ kpc from each galaxy. Studying the spatial structure of the CGM holds promise for understanding these gas flow mechanisms; however, the common method using background quasar sightlines provides minimal spatial information. Recent works have shown the utility of extended background sources such as giant gravitationally lensed arcs. Using background lensed arcs from the CSWA 38 lens system, we continuously probed, at a resolution element of about 15 kpc$^2$, the spatial and kinematic distribution of MgII absorption in a star-forming galaxy at $z=0.77$ (stellar mass $\approx 10^{9.7}$ M$_\odot$, star formation rate $\approx 10$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$) at impact parameters $D=5-40$ kpc. Our results present an anisotropic, optically thick medium whose absorption strength decreases with increasing impact parameter, in agreement with the statistics towards quasars and other gravitational arcs. Furthermore, we detect low line-of-sight velocities ($v\approx-25-80$ km s$^{-1}$) and relatively high velocity dispersion ($\sigma\approx50\pm30$ km s$^{-1}$) in the MgII gas. These measures provide evidence of a mainly pressure-supported, metal-enriched diffuse gas recycling through the CGM rather than an active galactic outflow.