0 Assigned ID: 510 ----- Attempting Submission 1 (Fri Apr 11 14:56:24 GMT 2014) ----- HST Phase I Proposal 510 (2014_Burchett_HST-AR.apt) successfully submitted. ----- Attempting Submission 2 (Fri Apr 11 15:23:26 GMT 2014) ----- HST Phase I Proposal 510 (2014_Burchett_HST-AR.apt) successfully submitted. ----- Attempting Submission 3 (Fri Apr 11 15:46:56 GMT 2014) ----- In the not-too-distant past, the study of galaxy evolution neglected the vast interface between the stars in a galaxy and intergalactic space except for the dynamical effects of dark matter. Thanks to QSO absorption line spectroscopy and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), the circumgalactic medium (CGM) has come into sharp focus as a rich ecosystem playing a vital role in the evolution of the host galaxy. However, attributing the gas detected in absorption with host dwarf galaxies detected in optical surveys around the sightline becomes very difficult very quickly with increasing redshift. In addition, both targeted UV spectroscopy and ground-based galaxy surveys are resource intensive, which complicates compiling large, statistically robust samples of very-low-redshift absorber/galaxy pairs. We propose a CGM study of unprecedented statistical power by exploiting the vast number of sightlines in the HST/COS archive located within the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) footprint to compile an estimated sample of 586 absorbers at z<0.015. This very-low-redshift criterion enables spectroscopic completeness down to L<0.01 L* galaxies in publicly available optical imaging and spectroscopy. Our survey is uniquely poised to address the following questions: (1) What is the role of dwarf galaxies that would be undetectable at higher redshift in giving rise to the gas detected in QSO spectroscopy? (2) How does galaxy environment and large-scale structure affect the CGM and what are the implications for environmental quenching of star formation? (3) How efficiently do feedback mechanisms expel metal-enriched gas to great distances into the galaxy halo and into the IGM? QUASAR ABSORPTION LINES AND IGM Default Medium false true false false false SUPPORTED