Properties of the highly ionized gas of quasars

Strong O VI absorption is therefore nearly ubiquitous in the CGM of z~2-3 galaxies. The total velocity widths of the O VI profiles are also large (200<={Delta}_{upsilon}_O VI_<=400 km/s). These properties are quite similar to those seen for O VI in low-z star-forming galaxies, and therefore we hypothesize that these strong CGM O VI absorbers (with {tau}_LL_>1) at 2<z<~3.5 also probe outflows of star-forming galaxies.

The LLSs and SLLSs with no O VI absorption have properties consistent with those seen in cosmological simulations tracing cold streams feeding galaxies. When the highly ionized (Si IV and O VI) gas is taken into account, we determine that the {tau}_LL_>1 absorbers could contain as much as 3%-14% of the cosmic baryon budget at z~2-3, only second to the Ly{alpha} forest. We conservatively show that 5%-20% of the metals ever produced at z~2-3 are in form of highly ionized metals ejected in the CGM of galaxies.