arXiv subjects

Maxime Cherrey

Publications and source records attributed to Maxime Cherrey.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

MusE GAs FLOw and Wind (MEGAFLOW) XIV: Background-Galaxy Absorption Reveals Kiloparsec-Scale Structure in the Cool Circumgalactic Medium

The properties of the cool ($T\sim10^4$~K) gas in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) are closely linked to the physical mechanisms that create and maintain this multiphase medium. The cool CGM is thought to consist of discrete clouds, whose characteristic size is unknown. Here we present a geometric and direct approach to constrain the coherence scale of these cool structures using stacked MgII absorption lines measured against extended background galaxies and effectively point-like background quasars, whose sizes are a few kpc and $\lesssim 0.01$pc, respectively. When the background-source size is smaller than the coherence scale of the foreground clouds, incomplete covering lowers the detection fraction and causes the median stacked absorption to differ from the mean. For stacked MgII absorption against background galaxies, the mean and median equivalent width (EW) profiles are broadly consistent. For stacked MgII absorption against background quasars, by contrast, the median and mean EW profiles differ significantly, reaching a $\approx10σ$ difference beyond 100 kpc. Furthermore, we find that the median and mean EW profiles are broadly consistent for large background galaxies (median half-light radius $\approx 6.6$ kpc), but differ at the $\approx3σ$ level for small background galaxies ($\approx 1.5$ kpc). This suggests that the MgII-bearing gas has an effective transverse coherence scale of order a few kiloparsecs, broadly consistent with the $\sim$2--7 kpc range probed by the background galaxies. Using a toy model in which the CGM is populated with discrete cool clouds, we show that the observed differences arise naturally from the combination of partial covering and beam averaging. Our results provide a new geometry-based measure of the small-scale structure of cool CGM gas.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2025

Exploring Multi-view Symbolic Regression methods in physical sciences

Describing the world behavior through mathematical functions help scientists to achieve a better understanding of the inner mechanisms of different phenomena. Traditionally, this is done by deriving new equations from first principles and careful observations. A modern alternative is to automate part of this process with symbolic regression (SR). The SR algorithms search for a function that adequately fits the observed data while trying to enforce sparsity, in the hopes of generating an interpretable equation. A particularly interesting extension to these algorithms is the Multi-view Symbolic Regression (MvSR). It searches for a parametric function capable of describing multiple datasets generated by the same phenomena, which helps to mitigate the common problems of overfitting and data scarcity. Recently, multiple implementations added support to MvSR with small differences between them. In this paper, we test and compare MvSR as supported in Operon, PySR, phy-SO, and eggp, in different real-world datasets. We show that they all often achieve good accuracy while proposing solutions with only few free parameters. However, we find that certain features enable a more frequent generation of better models. We conclude by providing guidelines for future MvSR developments.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2024

MusE GAs FLOw and Wind (MEGAFLOW) XIII. Cool gas traced by MgII around isolated galaxies

The circumgalactic medium (CGM) is a key component needed to understand the physical processes governing the flows of gas around galaxies. Quantifying its evolution and its dependence on galaxy properties is particularly important for our understanding of accretion and feedback mechanisms. We select a volume-selected sample of 66 {\it isolated} star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at $0.4< z <1.5$ with $\log(M_\star/M_{\odot})> 9$ from the MusE GAs FLOw and Wind (MEGAFLOW) survey. Using MgII 2796,2803 absorptions in background quasars, we measure the covering fraction $f_c$ and quantify how the cool gas profile depends on galaxy properties (such as star-formation rate (SFR), stellar mass ($M_\star$) or azimuthal angle relative to the line of sight) and how these dependencies evolve with redshift. The MgII covering fraction of isolated galaxies is a strong function of impact parameter, and is steeper than previously reported. The impact parameter $b_{50}$ at which $f_c = $50\% is $b_{50}=50\pm7$kpc ($65\pm7$ kpc) for $W_r^{2796}>$0.5 Å($W_r^{2796}>0.1$ Å), respectively. It is weakly correlated with SFR ($\propto$ SFR$^{0.08\pm0.09}$) and decreases with cosmic time ($\propto (1+z)^{0.8 \pm 0.7}$), contrary to the expectation of increasingly larger halos with time. The covering fraction is also higher along the minor axis than along the major axis at the $\approx 2 σ$ level. The CGM traced by \MgII{} is similar across the isolated galaxy population. Indeed, among the isolated galaxies with an impact parameter below 55 kpc, all have associated MgII absorption with $W_r^{2796}>$0.3Å, resulting in a steep covering fraction $f_c(b)$.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2024

MusE GAs FLOw and Wind (MEGAFLOW) XI. Scaling relations between outflows and host galaxy properties

Absorption line spectroscopy using background quasars can provide strong constraints on galactic outflows. In this paper, we investigate possible scaling relations between outflow properties, namely outflow velocity \Vout, the mass ejection rate $\dot M_{\rm out}$, and the mass loading factor $η$ and the host galaxy properties, such as star formation rate (SFR), SFR surface density, redshift, and stellar mass using galactic outflows probed by background quasars from MEGAFLOW and other surveys. We find that $V_{\rm out}$ ($η$) is (anti-)correlated with SFR and SFR surface density. We extend the formalism of momentum-driven outflows of Heckman et al. to show that it applies not only to down the barrel studies but also to winds probed by background quasars, suggesting a possible universal wind formalism. Under this formalism, we find a clear distinction between ``strong'' and ``weak'' outflows where ``strong'' outflows seem to have tighter correlations with galaxy properties (SFR or galaxy stellar mass) than ``weak'' outflows.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2023

Bipolar Outflows out to 10~kpc for Massive Galaxies at Redshift $z\approx 1$

Galactic outflows are believed to play a critical role in the evolution of galaxies by regulating their mass build-up and star formation. Theoretical models assumes bipolar shapes for the outflows that extends well into the circumgalctic medium (CGM), up to tens of kpc perpendicular to the galaxies. They have been directly observed in the local Universe in several individual galaxies, e.g., around the Milky Way and M82. At higher redshifts, cosmological simulations of galaxy formation predict an increase in the frequency and efficiency of galactic outflows due to the increasing star formation activity. Outflows are responsible for removing potential fuel for star formation from the galaxy, while at the same enriching the CGM and the intergalactic medium. These feedback processes, although incorporated as key elements of cosmological simulations, are still poorly constrained on CGM scales. Here we present an ultra-deep MUSE image of the mean MgII emission surrounding a sample of galaxies at z~1 that strongly suggests the presence of outflowing gas on physical scales of more than 10kpc. We find a strong dependence of the detected signal on the inclination of the central galaxy, with edge-on galaxies clearly showing enhanced MgII emission along the minor axis, while face-on galaxies display much weaker and more isotropic emission. We interpret these findings as supporting the idea that outflows typically have a bipolar cone geometry perpendicular to the galactic disk. We demonstrate that the signal is not dominated by a few outliers. After dividing the galaxy sample in subsamples by mass, the bipolar emission is only detected in galaxies with stellar mass $\mathrm{M_* \gtrsim 10^{9.5} M_\odot}$.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2023

MusE GAs FLOw and Wind (MEGAFLOW) X. The cool gas and covering fraction of MgII in galaxy groups

We present a study of the cool gas ($\approx 10^4$ K) traced by MgII absorptions around groups of galaxies in the MEGAFLOW survey. Using a combination of two algorithms we blindly identify 32 groups of more than 5 galaxies at $0.3 < z < 1.5$ with $10.7 < \log_{10}(M/\rm M_{\odot}) < 13.7$. Among them 26 can be used to study potential counterpart MgII absorptions. We report that 21 out of the total 120 MgII absorption systems present in MEGAFLOW are associated with groups. We observe that the MgII rest-frame equivalent width ($W^{2796}_r$) drops at an impact parameter of $\approx 150$ projected kpc from the closest galaxy and $\approx$ one virial radius from the identified group center indicating that MgII halos scale with the mass of the groups.The impact parameter where the covering fraction exceeds $50\%$ is $\log_{10}(b/\rm kpc) = 2.17 \pm 0.47$ $(2 σ)$ and $(b/R_{\rm vir}) = 1.67 \pm 0.98$, which is $\approx 3$ times larger than for field galaxies ($\log_{10}(b/\rm kpc)=1.67\pm0.15$). Finally, we estimate the cool gas column density profile in groups (from the $W^{2796}_r$) and show that its shape follows closely the typical dark matter column density profile for halos at similar redshift and masses.

astro-ph.GA↗