The Thermal Sunyaev–Zel’dovich Effect from Massive, Quiescent 0.5 ≤ z ≤ 1.5 Galaxies (2021)

Abstract We use combined South Pole Telescope (SPT)+Planck temperature maps to analyze the circumgalactic medium (CGM) encompassing 138,235 massive, quiescent 0.5 ≤ z ≤ 1.5 galaxies selected from data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). Images centered on these galaxies were cut from the 1.85 arcmin resolution maps with frequency bands at 95, 150, and 220 GHz. The images were stacked, filtered, and fit with a graybody dust model to isolate the thermal Sunyaev–Zel’dovich (tSZ) signal, which is proportional to the total energy contained in the CGM of the galaxies. We separated these M ⋆ = 10 10.9 M ⊙ –10 12 M ⊙ galaxies into 0.1 dex stellar mass bins, detecting tSZ per bin up to 5.6 σ and a total signal-to-noise ratio of 10.1 σ . We also detect dust with an overall signal-to-noise ratio of 9.8 σ , which overwhelms the tSZ at 150 GHz more than in other lower-redshift studies. We corrected for the 0.16 dex uncertainty in the stellar mass measurements by parameter fitting for an unconvolved power-law energy-mass relation, <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>E</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>therm</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>E</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>therm</mml:mi> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mi>peak</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mfenced close=")" open="("> <mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>M</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>⋆</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="true">/</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>M</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>⋆</mml:mo> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mi>peak</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:mfenced> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>α</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> , with the peak stellar mass distribution of our selected galaxies defined as M ⋆,peak = 2.3 × 10 11 M ⊙ . This yields an <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>E</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>therm</mml:mi> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mi>peak</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>5.98</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1.00</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1.02</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> <mml:mspace width="0.25em"/> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:msup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>10</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>60</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> erg and <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mi>α</mml:mi> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:msubsup> <mml:mrow> <mml:mn>3.77</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>−</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.74</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0.60</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msubsup> </mml:math> . These are consistent with z ≈ 0 observations and within the limits of moderate models of active galactic nucleus feedback. We also computed the radial profile of our full sample, which is similar to that recently measured at lower-redshift by Schaan et al.