Kinematics of Interstellar Gas in Nearby UV-selected Galaxies Measured with HST STIS Spectroscopy

Abstract

We measure Doppler shifts of interstellar absorption lines in HST STIS spectra of individual star clusters in nearby UV-selected galaxies. Values for systemic velocities, which are needed to quantify outflow speeds, are taken from the literature and verified with stellar lines. We detect outflowing gas in 8 of 17 galaxies via low-ionization lines (e.g., C II, Si II, Al II), which trace cold and/or warm gas. The starbursts in our sample are intermediate in luminosity (and mass) to dwarf galaxies and luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs), and we confirm that their outflow speeds (ranging from -100 to nearly -520 km s^-1, with an accuracy of ~80 km s^-1) are intermediate to those previously measured in dwarf starbursts and LIRGs. We do not detect the outflow in high-ionization lines (such as C IV or Si IV); higher quality data will be needed to empirically establish how velocities vary with the ionization state of the outflow. We do verify that the low-ionization UV lines and optical Na I doublet give roughly consistent outflow velocities, solidifying an important link between studies of galactic winds at low and high redshift. To obtain a higher signal-to-noise ratio (S/N), we create a local average composite spectrum and compare it to the high-z Lyman break composite spectrum. It is surprising that the low-ionization lines show similar outflow velocities in the two samples. We attribute this to a combination of weighting toward higher luminosities in the local composite, as well as both samples being, on average, brighter than the ``turnover'' luminosity in the v-SFR relation.

Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the Data Archive at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with program GO-9036.