HST/COS observations of QSOs within 600kpc of M31

We detect absorption from SiIII at -300<~V_LSR_<~-150km/s toward all three sightlines at R<~0.2R_vir_, 3 of 4 sightlines at 0.8<~R/R_vir_<~1.1, and possibly 1 of 11 at 1.1<R/R_vir_<~1.8.

We present several arguments that the gas at these velocities observed in these directions originates from the M31 CGM rather than the Local Group or Milky Way CGM or Magellanic Stream. We show that the dwarf galaxies located in the CGM of M31 have very similar velocities over similar projected distances from M31. We find a non-trivial relationship only at these velocities between the column densities (N) of all the ions and R, whereby N decreases with increasing R. At R<0.8R_vir_, the covering fraction is close to unity for Si III and C IV (f_c_~60%-97% at the 90% confidence level), but drops to f_c_<~10%-20% at R>~R_vir_.