Abstract
We present a complete catalog of 27 O VI absorbers at low redshift ( -->0.12 bnt. We show that in all 16 cases considered the observed line width is dominated by nonthermal motion and that gas temperatures are well below those expected for -->O5 + in collisional ionization equilibrium. This result reaffirms previous findings from studies of individual lines of sight but are at odds with expectations for a WHIM origin. At least half of the absorbers can be explained by a simple photoionization model. In addition, in some absorbers we find evidence for large variation in gas density/metallicity across components in individual absorbers. Comparisons of multiple associated metal species further show that under the assumption of the gas being photoionized by the metagalactic background radiation field, the absorbing clouds have gas densities --> L > 1 kpc . Finally, we compare our absorber selection with the results of other independent studies.
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