Understanding the circumgalactic medium is critical for understanding galaxy evolution
Creators: name: Peeples, Molly S.
name: Behroozi, Peter
name: Bordoloi, Rongmon
name: Brooks, Alyson
name: Bullock, James S.
name: Burchett, Joseph N.
name: Chen, Hsiao-Wen
name: Chisholm, John
name: Christensen, Charlotte
name: Coil, Alison
name: Corlies, Lauren
name: Diamond-Stanic, Aleksandar
name: Donahue, Megan
name: Faucher-Giguère, Claude-André
name: Ferguson, Henry
name: Fielding, Drummond
name: Fox, Andrew J.
name: French, David M.
name: Furlanetto, Steven R.
name: Gennaro, Mario
name: Gilbert, Karoline M.
name: Hamden, Erika
name: Hathi, Nimish
name: Hayes, Matthew
name: Henry, Alaina
name: Howk, J. Christopher
name: Hummels, Cameron
name: Kereš, Dušan
name: Kirby, Evan
name: Koekemoer, Anton M.
name: Lan, Ting-Wen
name: Lanz, Lauranne
name: Law, David R.
name: Lehner, Nicolas
name: Lotz, Jennifer M.
name: Martin, Crystal L.
name: McQuinn, Kristen
name: McQuinn, Matthew
name: Munshi, Ferah
name: Oh, S. Peng
name: O'Meara, John M.
name: O'Shea, Brian W.
name: Pacifici, Camilla
name: Peek, J. E. G.
name: Postman, Marc
name: Prescott, Moire
name: Putman, Mary
name: Quataert, Eliot
name: Rafelski, Marc
name: Ribaudo, Joseph
name: Rowlands, Kate
name: Rubin, Kate
name: Salmon, Brett
name: Scarlata, Claudia
name: Shapley, Alice E.
name: Simons, Raymond
name: Snyder, Gregory F.
name: Stern, Jonathan
name: Strom, Allison L.
name: Tollerud, Erik
name: Torrey, Paul
name: Tremblay, Grant
name: Tripp, Todd M.
name: Tumlinson, Jason
name: Tuttle, Sarah
name: Bosch, Frank C. van den
name: Voit, G. Mark
name: Wang, Q. Daniel
name: Werk, Jessica K.
name: Williams, Benjamin F.
name: Zaritsky, Dennis
name: Zheng, Yong
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2019
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Galaxies evolve under the influence of gas flows between their interstellar medium and their surrounding gaseous halos known as the circumgalactic medium (CGM). The CGM is a major reservoir of galactic baryons and metals, and plays a key role in the long cycles of accretion, feedback, and recycling of gas that drive star formation. In order to fully understand the physical processes at work within galaxies, it is therefore essential to have a firm understanding of the composition, structure, kinematics, thermodynamics, and evolution of the CGM. In this white paper we outline connections between the CGM and galactic star formation histories, internal kinematics, chemical evolution, quenching, satellite evolution, dark matter halo occupation, and the reionization of the larger-scale intergalactic medium in light of the advances that will be made on these topics in the 2020s. We argue that, in the next decade, fundamental progress on all of these major issues depends critically on improved empirical characterization and theoretical understanding of the CGM. In particular, we discuss how future advances in spatially-resolved CGM observations at high spectral resolution, broader characterization of the CGM across galaxy mass and redshift, and expected breakthroughs in cosmological hydrodynamic simulations will help resolve these major problems in galaxy evolution.
description: Astro2020 Decadal Science White Paper