CHEMICAL AND SPECTRAL PROPERTIES OF HOT GAS IN THE HALOS OF STARBURST GALAXIES

Indirect evidence strongly suggests that starburstdriven outflows (superwinds)from L virgul L* galaxies are responsible for much of the enrichment and heating ofthe IGM. Catching metalejection in action requires use of Xray telescopes tostudy the hot metalenriched plasma in superwind outflows. We propose EPICobservations of 3 nearby, relatively bright, edgeon starburst galaxies with theaim of constraining the spectral properties of the hot gas in their halos, inparticular the abundance ratios O/Fe and Mg/O. It is necessary to perform thisexperiment before we can unambiguously blame superwinds for the enrichment ofthe IGM. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]