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MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) - I: Survey design and the environment of a near pristine gas cloud at z ≈ 3.5

Lofthouse, Emma K; Fumagalli, Michele; Fossati, Matteo; O’Meara, John M; Murphy, Michael T; Christensen, Lise; Prochaska, J Xavier; Cantalupo, Sebastiano; Bielby, Richard M; Cooke, Ryan J; Lusso, Elisabeta; Morris, Simon L

MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) - I: Survey design and the environment of a near pristine gas cloud at z ≈ 3.5 Thumbnail


Authors

Emma K Lofthouse

Matteo Fossati

John M O’Meara

Michael T Murphy

Lise Christensen

J Xavier Prochaska

Sebastiano Cantalupo

Richard M Bielby

Elisabeta Lusso



Abstract

We present the design, methods, and first results of the MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) survey, a large programme on the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) which targets 28 z > 3.2 quasars to investigate the connection between optically-thick gas and galaxies at z ∼ 3 − 4. MAGG maps the environment of 52 strong absorption line systems at z ≳ 3, providing the first statistical sample of galaxies associated with gas-rich structures in the early Universe. In this paper, we study the galaxy population around a very metal poor gas cloud at z ≈ 3.53 towards the quasar J124957.23−015928.8. We detect three Lyα emitters within ≲200 km s−1 of the cloud redshift, at projected separations ≲185 kpc (physical). The presence of star-forming galaxies near a very metal-poor cloud indicates that metal enrichment is still spatially inhomogeneous at this redshift. Based on its very low metallicity and the presence of nearby galaxies, we propose that the most likely scenario for this LLS is that it lies within a filament which may be accreting onto a nearby galaxy. Taken together with the small number of other LLSs studied with MUSE, the observations to date show a range of different environments near strong absorption systems. The full MAGG survey will significantly expand this sample and enable a statistical analysis of the link between gas and galaxies to pin down the origin of these diverse environments at z ≈ 3 − 4.

Citation

Lofthouse, E. K., Fumagalli, M., Fossati, M., O’Meara, J. M., Murphy, M. T., Christensen, L., …Morris, S. L. (2020). MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) - I: Survey design and the environment of a near pristine gas cloud at z ≈ 3.5. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 491(2), 2057-2074. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz3066

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 21, 2019
Online Publication Date Nov 4, 2019
Publication Date Jan 31, 2020
Deposit Date Nov 8, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN 0035-8711
Electronic ISSN 1365-2966
Publisher Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 491
Issue 2
Pages 2057-2074
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stz3066

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Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in the Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2019 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.






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