A METAL-STRONG AND DUST-RICH DAMPED Ly{alpha} ABSORPTION SYSTEM TOWARD THE QUASAR SDSS J115705.52+615521.7
- National Astronomical Observatories/Yunnan Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 110, Kunming, Yunnan 650011 (China)
- Key Laboratory for Research in Galaxies and Cosmology, Department for Astronomy, University of Sciences and Technology of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui 230026 (China)
- Astronomy Department, University of Florida, 211 Bryant Space Science Center, P.O. Box 112055, Gainesville, FL 32611 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, UCO/Lick Observatory, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
We report the discovery of an unusual, extremely dust-rich and metal-strong damped Ly{alpha} absorption system (DLA) at a redshift z{sub a} = 2.4596 toward the quasar SDSS J115705.52+615521.7 with an emission-line redshift z{sub e} = 2.5125. The quasar spectrum, taken in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, shows a very red color and a number of metal absorption lines, including C II, Al II, Si II, Fe II, and Zn II, which are confirmed and further characterized by follow-up spectroscopy made with the Multiple Mirror Telescope. Its neutral hydrogen column density N {sub HI} = 10{sup 21.8{+-}0.2} cm{sup -2} is among the highest values measured in quasar DLAs. The measured metal column density is N {sub ZnII} Almost-Equal-To 10{sup 13.8} cm{sup -2}, which is about 1.5 times larger than the largest value in any previously observed quasar DLAs. We derive the extinction curve of the dusty DLA using a new technique, which is an analog of the 'pair method' widely used to measure extinction curves in the Milky Way (MW). The best-fit curve is an MW-like law with a significant broad feature centered around 2175 A in the rest frame of the absorber. The measured extinction A{sub V} Almost-Equal-To 0.92 mag is unprecedentedly high in quasar DLAs. After applying an extinction correction, the i-band absolute magnitude of the quasar is as high as M{sub i} Almost-Equal-To -29.4 mag, placing it as one of the most luminous quasars ever known. The large gas-phase relative abundance of [Zn/Fe] Almost-Equal-To 1.0 indicates that metals are heavily depleted onto dust grains in the absorber. The dust depletion level is between that of the warm and cool clouds in the MW. This discovery is suggestive of the existence of a rare yet important population of dust-rich DLAs with both high metallicities and high column densities, which may have significant impact on the measurement of the cosmic evolution of neutral gas mass density and metallicity.
- OSTI ID:
- 22086319
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 760, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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