The hot gas distribution, X-ray luminosity, and baryon budget in the L-Galaxies semi-analytic model of galaxy formation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Hot ionized gas is important in the baryon cycle of galaxies and contributes the majority of their ‘missing baryons’. Until now, most semi-analytic models of galaxy formation have paid little attention to hot gaseous haloes and their X-ray emission. In this paper, we adopt the one-dimensional model from Sharma et al. instead of the isothermal sphere to describe the radial distribution of hot gas in the L-Galaxies semi-analytic model. The hot gas halo can be divided into two parts according to the ratio of the local thermal instability time-scale and the free-fall time-scale: a cool core with tTI/tff = 10 and a stable outer halo with tTI/tff > 10. We update the prescriptions of cooling, feedback, and stripping based on the new hot gas profiles, and then reproduce several X-ray observational results like the radial profiles of hot gas density, and the scaling relations of X-ray luminosity and temperature. We find: (1) Consistent with observations, flatter density profiles in halo centers produce lower X-ray emission than an isothermal sphere; (2) Cool core regions prone to precipitation have higher gas temperature than the virial temperature, and a larger TX/T200 ratio in smaller haloes leads to a steeper slope in the LX–TX relation; (3) The ionized gas in the unbounded reservoir and low-temperature intergalactic gas in low-mass haloes could be the main components of the halo ‘missing baryons’. Our model outputs can predict the observations of hot gas in the nearby universe and produce mock surveys of baryons probed by future X-ray telescopes.