Thermal Sunyaev–Zel’dovich Effect in the Circumgalactic Medium. II. Dependence on Star Formation

We measure the thermal Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) of ≈2.5 million M 200 = 10 12−14 M ⊙ WISE × DESI galaxies out to z = 1.2. We split the sample into quiescent (0.7 million) and star-forming (1.8 million) galaxies, exploring the relation between the thermal pressure of the CGM and star formation for the first time. We develop and implement a novel probabilistic approach to cross-correlate the galaxy catalog with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope + Planck data by taking into account the uncertainties in redshift, mass, and star formation rate. The signal-to-noise ratio of the stacked Compton- y value in the CGM varies from 4.9 σ to 18.5 σ , depending on the sample size and the CGM signal strength within the relevant mass bin. We detect the CGM signal down to M 200 = 10 12.3 M ⊙ , and provide a stringent upper limit at M 200 < 10 12.3 M ⊙ . The data fit well with the standard generalized Navarro–Frenk–White profile of thermal pressure and do not require a flatter or steeper profile. This suggests a significant impact of cooling and the absence of dominant feedback. In galaxies with M 200 ≈ 10 12.3−12.8 M ⊙ halos, the volume-filling CGM is likely the largest contributor to the galactic baryons at their virial temperatures of ∼10 6−6.4 K. For M 200 > 10 12.8 ! M ⊙ halos, the most massive phase of the CGM is likely at a subvirial temperature of ≳10 6 K. The thermal energy of the CGM of quiescent galaxies follows the self-similar relation with mass, but the star-forming galaxies deviate from this relation. This indicates that the impact of nongravitational factors varies among halos of different degrees of star-forming activity.