A Comparison of Circumgalactic MgII Absorption between the TNG50 Simulation and the MEGAFLOW Survey

Abstract

The circumgalactic medium (CGM) contains information on gas flows around galaxies, such as accretion and supernova-driven winds, which are difficult to constrain from observations alone. Here, we use the high-resolution TNG50 cosmological magnetohydrodynamical simulation to study the properties and kinematics of the CGM around star-forming galaxies in $10^{11.5}-10^{12}\;M_{\odot}$ halos at $z\simeq$ 1 using mock MgII absorption lines, which we generate by postprocessing halos to account for photoionization in the presence of a UV background. We find that the MgII gas is a very good tracer of the cold CGM, which is accreting inward at inflow velocities of up to 50 km s$^{-1}$. For sight lines aligned with the galaxy's major axis, we find that MgII absorption lines are kinematically shifted due to the cold CGM's significant corotation at speeds up to 50% of the virial velocity for impact parameters up to 60 kpc. We compare mock MgII spectra to observations from the MusE GAs FLow and Wind (MEGAFLOW) survey of strong MgII absorbers ($\rm{EW}^{2796\r{A}}_{0}>0.5 \; \r{A}$). After matching the equivalent-width (EW) selection, we find that the mock MgII spectra reflect the diversity of observed kinematics and EWs from MEGAFLOW, even though the sight lines probe a very small fraction of the CGM. MgII absorption in higher-mass halos is stronger and broader than in lower-mass halos but has qualitatively similar kinematics. The median-specific angular momentum of the MgII CGM gas in TNG50 is very similar to that of the entire CGM and only differs from non-CGM components of the halo by normalization factors of $\lesssim$ 1 dex.