4.7 Article

USING 21 cm ABSORPTION IN SMALL IMPACT PARAMETER GALAXY-QUASAR PAIRS TO PROBE LOW-REDSHIFT DAMPED AND SUB-DAMPED Lyα SYSTEMS

Journal

ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 713, Issue 1, Pages 131-145

Publisher

IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/713/1/131

Keywords

galaxies: abundances; galaxies: ISM; quasars: absorption lines; quasars: individual (SDSS J104257.58+074850.5)

Funding

  1. National Radio Astronomy Observatory [GSSP08-0024]
  2. NASA [NNX08AJ44G]
  3. NASA LTSA [NNG05GE26G]
  4. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
  5. Participating Institutions
  6. National Science Foundation
  7. U. S. Department of Energy
  8. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
  9. Japanese Monbukagakush
  10. Max Planck Society
  11. Higher Education Funding Council for England
  12. NASA [NNX08AJ44G, 100420] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER

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To search for low-redshift damped Ly alpha (DLA) and sub-DLA quasar absorbers, we have conducted a 21 cm absorption survey of radio-loud quasars at small impact parameters to foreground galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Here we present the first results from this survey based on observations of SDSS J104257.58+074850.5 (z(QSO) = 2.66521), a quasar at an angular separation from a foreground galaxy (z(gal) = 0.03321) of 2 ''.5 (1.7 kpc in projection). The foreground galaxy is a low-luminosity spiral with on-going star formation (0.004 M-circle dot yr(-1) kpc(-2)) and a metallicity of -0.27 +/- 0.05 dex. We detect 21 cm absorption from the galaxy with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), the Very Large Array (VLA), and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). The absorption appears to be quiescent disk gas co-rotating with the galaxy and we do not find any evidence for outflowing cold neutral gas. The width of the main absorption line indicates that the gas is cold, T-k < 283 K, and the Hi column is surprisingly low given the impact parameter of 1.7 kpc; we find that N(H I) <= 9.6 x 10(19) cm(-2) (GBT) and N(H I) <= 1.5 x 10(20) cm(-2) (VLBA). VLBA marginally resolves the continuum source and the absorber, and a lower limit of 27.1 x 13.9 pc is derived for the size of the absorbing cloud. In turn, this indicates a low density for a cold cloud, n(H I) < 3.5 cm(-3). We hypothesize that this galaxy, which is relatively isolated, is becoming depleted in Hi because it is converting its interstellar matter into stars without a replenishing source of gas, and we suggest future observations to probe this and similar galaxies.

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