Column densities from HST/COS SiIV AGN sight lines

This model is constrained by a column density line-shape sample extracted from the Hubble Space Telescope/Cosmic Origins Spectrograph archival data, which contains 186 active galactic nucleus sight lines. We find that the SiIV ion density distribution is dominated by an extended disk along the z-direction (above or below the midplane), i.e., n(z)=n_0_exp(-(z/z_0_)^0.82^), where z_0_ is the scale height of 6.3_-1.5_^+1.6^kpc (northern hemisphere) and 3.6_-0.9_^+1.0^kpc (southern hemisphere).

The density distribution of the disk in the radial direction shows a sharp edge at 15-20kpc given by, n(r_XY_)=n_0_exp(-(r_XY_/r_0_)^3.36^), where r_0_~12.5+/-0.6kpc. The difference of density distributions over r_XY_ and z directions indicates that the warm gas traced by SiIV is mainly associated with disk processes (e.g., feedback or cycling gas) rather than accretion. We estimate the mass of the warm gas (within 50kpc) is log(M(50kpc)/M_{sun}_)~8.1 (assuming Z~0.5Z_{sun}_), and a 3{sigma} upper limit of log(M(250kpc)/M_{sun}_)~9.1 (excluding the Magellanic system).