Shining A Light On Galactic Outflows: Photo-Ionized Outflows
  We study the ionization structure of galactic outflows in 37 nearby, star
forming galaxies with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space
Telescope. We use the O I, Si II, Si III, and Si IV ultraviolet absorption
lines to characterize the different ionization states of outflowing gas. We
measure the equivalent widths, line widths, and outflow velocities of the four
transitions, and find shallow scaling relations between them and galactic
stellar mass and star formation rate. Regardless of the ionization potential,
lines of similar strength have similar velocities and line widths, indicating
that the four transitions can be modeled as a co-moving phase. The Si
equivalent width ratios (e.g. Si IV/Si II) have low dispersion, and little
variation with stellar mass; while ratios with O I and Si vary by a factor of 2
for a given stellar mass. Photo-ionization models reproduce these equivalent
width ratios, while shock models under predict the relative amount of high
ionization gas. The photo-ionization models constrain the ionization parameter
(U) between -2.25 < log(U) < -1.5, and require that the outflow metallicities
are greater than 0.5 Z$_\odot$. We derive ionization fractions for the
transitions, and show that the range of ionization parameters and stellar
metallicities leads to a factor of 1.15-10 variation in the ionization
fractions. Historically, mass outflow rates are calculated by converting a
column density measurement from a single metal ion into a total Hydrogen column
density using an ionization fraction, thus mass outflow rates are sensitive to
the assumed ionization structure of the outflow.
