Probing the WHIM Gas Through Ne VIII Absorption

We report on the second ever greater than or equal to 3 sigma detection of a Ne VIII intergalactic absorption system. The system is identified in the FUSE spectrum of 3C 263 at a redshift of z = 0.32566. The presence of intermediate ionization species such as O III, O IV, N IV and C IV at the same v...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Narayanan, A, Wakker, B P, Savage, B D
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
ABSORPTION
ASTROPHYSICS
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
CARBON IONS
FAR ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
GALAXY NUCLEI
GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
INTERGALACTIC SPACE
ION COLLISIONS
MULTICHARGED IONS
NEON IONS
NITROGEN IONS
OXYGEN IONS
PHOTOIONIZATION
QUASARS
RED SHIFT
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Summary:We report on the second ever greater than or equal to 3 sigma detection of a Ne VIII intergalactic absorption system. The system is identified in the FUSE spectrum of 3C 263 at a redshift of z = 0.32566. The presence of intermediate ionization species such as O III, O IV, N IV and C IV at the same velocity as Ne VIII, confirms that the absorption system is tracing gas at multiple ionization conditions. Unlike the intermediate ions, we find that the Ne VIII in this absorber is inconsistent with having an origin in a cool photoionization gas phase. The more likely source is collisional ionization in a warm shock-heated phase, in which case the absorber is tracing the WHIM phase of the IGM. Further constraints from H I and O IV are needed to better understand the physical conditions in the warm collisionally ionized gas. The properties of this absorber bear resemblance to the previous detection of Ne VIII reported by Savage et al. (2005).
ISSN:0094-243X
1551-7616
DOI:10.1063/1.3154060