The Red Dead Redemption Survey of Circumgalactic Gas about Massive Galaxies. I. Mass and Metallicity of the Cool Phase

Abstract

We present a search for HI in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of 21 massive ($\langle \log M_\star \rangle \sim 11.4$), luminous red galaxies (LRGs) at $z\sim0.5$. Using UV spectroscopy of QSO sightlines projected within 500 kpc ($\sim R_{vir}$) of these galaxies, we detect HI absorption in 11/21 sightlines, including two partial Lyman limit systems and two Lyman limit systems. The covering factor of $\log N(HI) \ge 16.0$ gas within the virial radius of these LRGs is $f_c(\rho \le R_{vir}) = 0.27^{+0.11}_{-0.10}$, while for optically-thick gas ($\log N(HI) \ge 17.2$) it is $f_c(\rho \le R_{vir}) = 0.15^{+0.10}_{-0.07}$. Combining this sample of massive galaxies with previous galaxy-selected CGM studies, we find no strong dependence of the HI covering factor on galaxy mass, although star-forming galaxies show marginally higher covering factors. There is no evidence for a critical mass above which dense, cold ($T \sim 10^4$ K) gas is suppressed in the CGM of galaxies (spanning stellar masses $9.5 \lesssim \log M_\star \lesssim 11.8$). The metallicity distribution in LRGs is indistinguishable from those found about lower-mass star-forming galaxies, and we find low-metallicity gas with $[{\rm X/H}] \approx -1.8$ (1.5% solar) and below about massive galaxies. About half the cases show super-solar [FeII/MgII] abundances as seen previously in cool gas near massive galaxies. While the high-metallicity cold gas seen in LRGs could plausibly result from condensation from a corona, the low-metallicity gas is inconsistent with this interpretation.