The Extended Distribution of Baryons around Galaxies

Abstract

We summarize and reanalyze observations bearing on missing galactic baryons, where we propose a consistent picture for halo gas in L ≳ L* galaxies. The hot X-ray-emitting halos are detected to 50-70 kpc, where typically M _hot(<50 kpc) ∼ 5 × 10⁹ M _⊙, and with density n ∝ r ^-3/2. When extrapolated to R ₂₀₀, the gas mass is comparable to the stellar mass, but about half of the baryons are still missing from the hot phase. If extrapolated to 1.7R ₂₀₀-3R ₂₀₀, the ratio of baryon to dark matter approaches the cosmic value. Significantly flatter density profiles are unlikely for R < 50 kpc, and they are disfavored but not ruled out for R > 50 kpc. For the Milky Way, the hot halo metallicity lies in the range 0.3-1 solar for R < 50 kpc. Planck measurements of the thermal Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) effect toward stacked luminous galaxies (primarily early type) indicate that most of their baryons are hot, are near the virial temperature, and extend beyond R ₂₀₀. This stacked SZ signal is nearly an order of magnitude larger than that inferred from the X-ray observations of individual (mostly spiral) galaxies with M _* > 10^11.3 M _⊙. This difference suggests that the hot halo properties are distinct for early- and late-type galaxies, possibly due to different evolutionary histories. For the cooler gas detected in UV absorption line studies, we argue that there are two absorption populations: extended halos, and disks extending to ∼50 kpc, containing most of this gas, and with masses a few times lower than the stellar masses. Such extended disks are also seen in 21 cm H I observations and in simulations.