AGN proximity zone fossils and the delayed recombination of metal lines. (arXiv:1303.0019v1 [astro-ph.CO])

AGN proximity zone fossils and the delayed recombination of metal lines. (arXiv:1303.0019v1 [astro-ph.CO]):
We model the time-dependent evolution of metal-enriched intergalactic and
circumgalactic gas exposed to the fluctuating radiation field from an active
galactic nucleus (AGN). We consider diffuse gas densities (n_H=10^-5-10^-3
cm^-3) exposed to the extra-galactic background (EGB) and initially in thermal
equilibrium (T \sim 10^4-10^4.5 K). Once the proximate AGN field turns on,
additional photo-ionisation rapidly ionises the HI and metals. The enhanced AGN
radiation field turns off after a typical AGN lifetime (tau_AGN=1-20 Myr) and
the field returns to the EGB intensity, but the metals remain out of ionisation
equilibrium for timescales that can significantly exceed tau_AGN. We define
this phase as the AGN proximity zone "fossil" phase and show that high
ionisation stages (e.g. OVI, NeVIII, MgX) are in general enhanced, while the
abundances of low ions are reduced. In contrast, HI re-equilibrates rapidly
(<<tau_AGN) owing to its low neutral fraction at diffuse densities. We
demonstrate that metal column densities of intervening gas observed in
absorption in quasar sight lines are significantly affected by delayed
recombination for a wide range of densities, metallicities, and AGN strengths,
lifetimes, and duty cycles. We model the exceptionally strong z=0.9 NeVIII
absorbers observed by Tripp et al. (2011) as arising in a possible fossil zone
or near a recently turned-on AGN and we demonstrate that at low redshift even
moderate strength AGN could significantly enhance the high-ion metal columns in
the circumgalactic media of galaxies observed without active AGN. Fossil
proximity zones may be particularly important during the quasar era, z \sim
2-5. AGN proximity zone fossils allow a whole new class of non-equilibrium
solutions that may be applicable to a large fraction of observed metal
absorbers and which could potentially change the inferred physical conditions
and masses of diffuse gases.