The authors use a CDM simulation which includes IGM metal enrichment from superwinds to predict the galaxy-OVI absorber cross-correlation at low redshifts; or, as in the figure above, the fraction of galaxies with an OVI absorber within a given distance, at different galaxy luminosities, absorber strengths, and projected absorber-galaxy separations. They find that the correlation length depends strongly on galaxy luminosity (with faint, low-mass galaxies having more nearby absorbers on average) but not on absorber strength. Only ~15% of OVI absorbers come from >L* galaxies, implying that IGM enrichment may be predominantly due to many faint sources rather than a few bright ones.
They note also that these results are somewhat preliminary and their simulation resolution may cause problems for the lowest-mass galaxies, but these will be a valuable starting point for comparison to upcoming large COS surveys.
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