Kinematics of interstellar gas in nearby UV-selected galaxies measured with HST STIS spectroscopy

We measure Doppler shifts of interstellar absorption lines in HST STIS spectra of individual star clusters in nearby UV-selected galaxies. Values for systemic velocities, which are needed to quantify outflow speeds, are taken from the literature and verified with stellar lines. We detect outflowing gas in 8 of 17 galaxies via low-ionization lines (e.g., C II, Si II, Al II), which trace cold and/or warm gas. The starbursts in our sample are intermediate in luminosity (and mass) to dwarf galaxies and luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs), and we confirm that their outflow speeds (ranging from -100 to nearly -520 km s(-1), with an accuracy of similar to 80 km s(-1)) are intermediate to those previously measured in dwarf starbursts and LIRGs. We do not detect the outflow in high-ionization lines (such as C IV or Si IV); higher quality data will be needed to empirically establish how velocities vary with the ionization state of the outflow. We do verify that the low-ionization UV lines and optical Na I doublet give roughly consistent outflow velocities, solidifying an important link between studies of galactic winds at low and high redshift. To obtain a higher signal-to-noise ratio (S/N), we create a local average composite spectrum and compare it to the high-z Lyman break composite spectrum. It is surprising that the low-ionization lines show similar outflow velocities in the two samples. We attribute this to a combination of weighting toward higher luminosities in the local composite, as well as both samples being, on average, brighter than the "turnover'' luminosity in the nu-SFR relation.