| Description |
The formation and evolution of galaxies are shaped by both internal and external processes. Galaxies are surrounded by gaseous haloes or the circumgalactic medium that is now established to be a crucial component of the galaxy ecosystem. Along with the stellar discs of galaxies, their gaseous haloes get affected by secular and environmental processes. However, to date, most studies of the galaxy-gaseous halo connection have been biased towards the more massive galaxies and lacked a complete census of the local galaxy environment. Thanks to wide-field optical integral field unit spectrographs like the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on the Very Large Telescope and near-infrared slit-less grism spectrographs on the Hubble Space Telescope, we can now conduct a more complete, unbiased and statistical analysis of the galaxy-gaseous halo connection in the context of the small-scale galaxy environment. We have used two large and complete galaxy surveys in quasar fields - the MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) survey and the Quasar Sightline and Galaxy Evolution (QSAGE) survey - to study metal-enriched gaseous haloes out to physical projected separations of 750 kpc and up to redshift of 2. We have investigated the dependence of the low-ionization gas as traced by MgII absorption, and the more highly ionized gas as traced by CIV absorption, on galaxy properties like stellar mass and star formation rate as well as on the galaxy environment. This talk will present the key results from these studies as well as discuss briefly the prospects of extending such studies with upcoming telescopes and surveys.
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