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Deep imaging of Q2112+059: A bright host galaxy but no DLA absorber PDF

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Preview Deep imaging of Q2112+059: A bright host galaxy but no DLA absorber

A&Amanuscriptno. ASTRONOMY (willbeinsertedbyhandlater) AND Yourthesauruscodesare: ASTROPHYSICS 11(11.01.2;11.05.1;11.17.1;11.17.4;Q2112+059) Deep imaging of Q2112+059: A bright host galaxy but no DLA absorber ⋆,⋆⋆ J.U.Fynbo1,P.Møller1,andB.Thomsen2 1 EuropeanSouthernObservatory,Karl-Schwarzschild-Straße2,D-85748,GarchingbyMu¨nchen,Germany 2 InstituteofPhysicsandAstronomy,A˚rhusUniversity,DK-8000A˚rhusC 1 0 Received;accepted 0 2 n Abstract. In a ongoingprogrammeaimedatstudyinggalaxy Lyα absorbers or DLAs for short (Møller and Warren 1993, a counterpartsof Damped Lyα Absorbers(DLAs) we have ob- 1998; Fynbo et al. 1999, 2000a,b). DLAs cause Lyα absorp- J tained high resolution deep I-band imaging data of the field tion lines with damping wings corresponding to HI column 4 around the z = 0.457 BAL QSO Q2112+059. In the liter- densities larger than 2 × 1020cm−2. This very large column em ature this QSO is listed to have a candidate DLA at z = densityabsorptionoccursinregionsofselfshielding,coolgas, 1 abs v 0.2039 along the line of sight. After subtraction of the QSO i.e. where one would expect stars to form. Furthermore, they 4 PointSpreadFunction(PSF)wedetectagalaxycentredonthe contain nearlyall the neutralgas in the universe(Wolfe et al. 6 position of Q2112+059. To help answer whether this galaxy 1995). Hence DLAs at high redshift are prime candidates for 0 is the DLA or the QSO host galaxy we retrieved a GHRS beingtheprogenitorsofpresentdaygalaxies. 1 spectrumofQ2112+059fromtheHST-archive.Thisspectrum At redshifts z < 1.65 DLAs are both rarer and observa- 0 1 shows that there is no Lyα absorption line at zabs = 0.2039. tionallymoredifficulttodetectsinceLyαisnotshiftedabove 0 Thisfactincombinationwiththeperfectalignmentonthesky atmosphericcut–offandhencecannotbeobservedwithground / ofthegalaxyandQ2112+059leadustotheconclusionthatthe basedtelescopes(Lanzettaetal.1995;Jannuzietal.1998;Rao h p galaxymustbethehostgalaxyofQ2112+059. & Turnshek 2000). Le Brun et al. (1997) reported candidate - ThehostgalaxyofQ2112+059isbright(Mobs = −23.6), galaxy counterparts of 7 such low redshift absorbers that are o I andhas a radialprofilewell fitted by a modifiedHubble+de either confirmed DLAs or strong MgII/FeII absorbers. They r t VaucouleursprofilewithR = 0.5kpcandR = 3.6kpc.Our found that those candidate galaxy counterparts cover a wide s c e a resultsarewellinlinewiththeconclusionofearlierworkdone rangeinmorphologicaltypes. v: atlowerredshifts,thatbrightlowredshiftQSOspreferentially The zem = 0.457 BAL QSO Q2112+059 (2000.0 coordi- i resideinluminous,ellipticalgalaxies.ThehostofQ2112+059 natesRA 211452.6,DEC +060741)isradioquiet,andhas X is however, despite it’s brightness, very compact when com- optical magnitudes B = 15.52 and V = 15.77. Lanzetta et al. ar paredtoearlytypegalaxiesatlowerredshifts. (1995) reported the detection of a candidate DLA at zabs = 0.2039intheIUEspectrumofQ2112+059.InSeptember1996 Keywords:quasars–absorptionlines,quasars–Q2112+059, weperformedanimagingstudyofQ2112+059inanattemptto galaxies–active,galaxies–elliptical,lenticular,cD detect the optical counterpart of this DLA. The imaging and data reduction is described in Sect. 2, in Sect. 3 we present spectroscopicdatafromtheHubbleDataArchiveandinSect. 4and5wediscussourresults. 1. Introduction For easy comparison to earlier work on this subject, we We have during the last several years been undertaking pro- shallhereassumeaHubbleconstantof50kms−1 Mpc−1and grammes aimed at detecting optical counterparts of the most Ω=1.0. HI rich class of QSO absorption line systems, the Damped Sendoffprintrequeststo:J.U.Fynbo 2. Imaging ⋆ BasedonobservationsmadewiththeNordicOpticalTelescope, operatedontheislandofLaPalmajointlybyDenmark,Finland,Ice- 2.1. ObservationsandDataReduction land,Norway,andSweden,intheSpanishObservatoriodelRoquede The observationswereperformedin 1996withHiRAC (High losMuchachosoftheInstitutodeAstrofisicadeCanarias. ⋆⋆ BasedonobservationswiththeNASA/ESAHubbleSpaceTele- Resolution Adaptive Camera) on the 2.56 m Nordic Optical Telescope underphotometricand excellentseeing conditions. scope,obtainedfromthedataArchiveattheSpaceTelescopeScience Institute,whichisoperatedbytheAssociationofUniversitiesforRe- The CCD used was a 1k×1k back-side illuminated thinned searchinAstronomy,Inc.underNASAcontractNo.NAS5-26555. Tektronix with a pixel scale of 0.176 arcsec. The data were Correspondenceto:[email protected] allobtainedintheBesselIfilter.Thejournalofobservationsis 2 J.U.Fynboetal.:DeepimagingofQ2112+059:AbrighthostgalaxybutnoDLAabsorber Fig.1. Combined frame containing 973×1023 pixels (171×180arcsec2)surroundingtheQSOQ2112+059(marked byanarrow).Northisupandeasttotheleft.Alsomarkedare the field stars A–E which we use to check the stability of the PSFinSect.2.2. given in Table 1. A total integration time of 3.25 hours was obtained. Also observed were 7 Landolt sequences (Landolt 1992). The39individualframeswerebiassubtracted,flat-fielded andsubsequentlycoaddedusingtheoptimalcombinationcode describedinMøllerandWarren(1993). InFig.1weshowthefinalcombinedimageof973×1023 pixels (171×180 arcsec2) surrounding Q2112+059 which is marked with an arrow. Using the Landolt sequences we Fig.2.–a)Theradialprofilesof5brightfieldstarsandofthe obtained the calibration from the instrumental system to QSO. The profiles were determined as the azimuthal average Cousins I. The uncertaintyin the zero–pointis 0.02 mag. For ona9by9sub–pixelgrid.Theprofileshavebeennormalised Q2112+059wefindI=15.16±0.02,wheretheerrorisdomi- to the same valuein the centre(illustrated in the insertwhere natedbythezero–pointerror.TheskybrightnesswasµI(sky) weplotthecentralpartoftheµI profilesvs.log(R).TheQSO = 19.0 mag arcsec−2 and the sky noise in the final combined clearly has excess extended flux compared to the stellar pro- image 26.8 mag arcsec−2. The full–width–at–half–maximum files.b)Residualsaftersubtractionoftheweightedmeanstel- (fwhm)ofpointsourcesinthecombinedimageis0.69arcsec. larprofiledeterminedfromthestarsA–E.Theresidualsforthe 5starsare0towithinthenoise,butthereisaclearlydetected residualforQ2112+059. Table1.JournalofNOTobservations Date SeeingFWHM Numberof Exp.Time (arcsec) Frames (sec) 1996Sep15 0.6-0.8 7 2100 1996Sep17 0.5-0.7 10 3000 There is no indication of variability of Q2112+059 with 1996Sep18 0.6-0.8 13 3900 amplitudeabove0.01magontime-scalesfromtensofminutes 1996Sep20 0.5-0.7 4 1200 todays. 1996Sep21 0.8-0.9 5 1500 J.U.Fynboetal.:DeepimagingofQ2112+059:AbrighthostgalaxybutnoDLAabsorber 3 2.2. PSFqualityandstabilitytest In order to search for faint sources near the line of sight to thebrightQ2112+059agoodPSF-subtractionismandatory.To testthestabilityofthePSFweselected5brightstarsdistributed over the full field. These stars are marked A–E in Fig. 1. We then determined the radial profiles of the field stars by aver- aging over the azimuth angle on a 9 by 9 sub–pixel grid. In Fig. 2a we have plotted the radial profiles determined in this way.AlsoplottedistheradialprofileofQ2112+059.Allpro- fileswerenormalisedtothesamelevelinthecentre(shownin detail in the inserted logarithmicplot in Fig. 2a). The surface brightness(µI) zero–pointin Fig. 2awas chosento be thatof theQ2112+059profile.Itisseenthat,i)the5brightstarshave radialprofiles(fulldrawnlines)thatareidenticaltowithinthe thickness of the lines out to about 2.8 arcsec, and ii) the ra- dialprofileofQ2112+059(shortdash)showsexcessfluxover thatofthefieldstars.ToquantifytheexcessweplotinFig.2b theresidualsurfacebrightnessaftersubtractionoftheweighted mean stellar profile determinedfrom the field stars A – E. At radial distances ranging from 1.4 to 3.6 arcsec from the cen- troid of the QSO, the excess surface brightness is 0.08–0.14 mag.InthesamerangethescatterofthestellarPSFsisabouta Fig.3. Upper left : 100×100 pixels (17.6×17.6 arcsec2) sur- factor10–20smaller.Atradialdistanceslargerthan3.6arcsec rounding Q2112+059. Upper right : Same as left frame, but theprofilesaredominatedbyskynoise. after subtraction of the 2D PSF. Lower panels : For compari- We endthissectionconcludingthatthePSFisverystable sonweshowthefieldstarmarkedCinFig.1beforeandafter acrossthefield andthatthe profileofQ2112+059hassignifi- PSF–subtraction.Theimageshaveallbeensmoothedbya3×3 cantexcessfluxoverthatofaPSF. boxcarfilter.Thecontourlevelsare-4,4,6,8,12,20,38,...in termsofsigmaoftheskyintheunfilteredimage,withtheneg- ativecontourbeingdotted. 2.3. 2DPSF–subtraction Toexaminethenatureoftheexcessfluxweproceededwitha (0.07arcsec).The isophotesofthe residualshownoclear ev- twodimensionalPSFsubtractionusingDAOPHOTII(Stetson idence for ellipticity, rather they are consistent with e = 0. 1987,1999).Forthedeterminationofthe2DPSFwechoseto There are two additionalobjects that are both consistentwith usestar A,whichistheclosesttoQ2112+059,butasdemon- being point sources 5 and 7 arcsec east of S, and patches of strated above our results are not dependent on this specific faint extendedfuzz both east and west of the object S. In the choiceofPSFstar.WhenwesubtractedthePSFoftheQSOus- lower panels of Fig. 3 we show for comparison the field star ingthescalingofthePSFautomaticallychosenbyDAOPHOT C (0.35 mag fainter than Q2112+059)before and after PSF– II this produced a residual consisting of an extended positive subtraction. residual surrounding a negative “hole” in which the PSF had beenover–subtracted.Thisisthe typicalresidualonewill see 3. SpectroscopyfromtheHDA whenapointsourceandanextendedobjectaresuperimposed on roughlythe same position(see e.g. Fig. 2b where the PSF Our original aim with the observations was to detect the op- subtracted QSO profile is 0 in the centre but 0.13 mag 3 arc- tical counterpartofthe DLA, butthe perfectalignmentofthe sec out).To obtaina image ofthe underlyingextendedobject galaxySwiththeQSOreportedabovesuggeststhatweprob- withoutthe“hole”fromthePSFsubtraction,wemustimpose ablyhavedetectedtheQSOhostgalaxyratherthanthegalaxy someadditionalcondition.Areasonableassumptionisthatthe causing the reportedcandidateDLA absorption.To helpclar- extendedobjectis“flat”acrossthecentroidoftheQSO,sowe ifythiswesearchedtheHubbleDataArchive(HDA)forspec- shallusethisastheextraconstrainttobreakthedegeneracy. troscopic data of Q2112+059.In this section we describe the Fig.3showstheresultofthisfinaltwodimensionalPSF– resultsofthissearch. subtraction. In the upper left panel is shown 100×100 pixels (17.6×17.6arcsec2)aroundQ2112+059.Theupperrightpanel 3.1. RetrievalofthespectraandDataReductions showsthesameareaafterthefinalsubtractionofthePSF.The residualimageintheupperrightframeshowsafairlylargeex- We foundtwo data sets suitable for this study. GoddardHigh tendedobject(markedS),presumablyagalaxy.Thecentroidof ResolutionSpectrograph(GHRS)spectraovertheregionfrom this objectcoincideswith thatof the QSO to within 0.4 pixel 1330 A˚ to 1610 A˚ (grism G140L) was obtained in 1995 (PI 4 J.U.Fynboetal.:DeepimagingofQ2112+059:AbrighthostgalaxybutnoDLAabsorber Fig.4.The80A˚ regionaroundLyαatz=0.2039ofthenormal- ized and binned spectrum of Q2112+059. Also shown is the 1σ error per 0.72A˚ bin (lower curve). The dotted line shows a damped Lyα absorption line with a HI column density of 2×1020cm−2ataredshiftofz=0.2039.Thepresenceofsucha lineaexcludedatthe29σlevel. Lanzetta) and in 1992 spectra of the region from 1610 A˚ to 3250A˚ wasobtainedwiththeFaintObjectSpectrograph(FOS) (PI Bahcall). Only the FOS-spectra has been published (Jan- nuzietal.1998). We retrieved the calibrated GHRS spectrum from the archive. Hence, the data reduction was limited to extracting the1dimensionalspectrumand1σ errorspectrafromthecal- ibrated science data files and using the calibrated wavelength solutionfiles. 3.2. Results Fig.5. Upper panel: The crosses show the surface brightness for the host galaxy determined by azimuthal averaging on a Fig. 5 showsthe spectrumofQ2112+059coveringthe region 9 by 9 sub–pixel grid plotted against R1/4 (in arcsec). Also from1425A˚ to1505A˚.Alsoshownisthe1σerrorper0.72A˚ plotted(fulldrawnlines)are 6exponentialprofileswithscale bin(lowercurve). lengths0.1–0.6arcsecconvolvedwiththePSFandazimuthally ThepresenceofadampedLyαabsorptionlineintheLyα averagedinthesamewayasthedata.Asseennoexponential forestofQ2112+059atz = 0.2039isexcludedatthe29σ modelprovidesagoodfittothedata.Lowerpanel:Sameasthe abs confidencelevel. The FOS spectrum shows absorptiondue to upperpanelexceptherewehaveoverplottedtheradialprofile gas in the Milky Way and intervening metal line systems at of a modelconsistingof an outerR1/4 profile anda modified redshifts z=0.370 and z=0.418 as well as metal line systems Hubble profile in the core (see text for details). As seen this associatedwithQ2112+059,butnoabsorptionlinesatthered- modelmatchthedatawell. shiftz=0.2039(Jannuziprivatecommunication;Turnsheketal. inprep.). 4. Natureofthehostgalaxy AsdiscussedbyRao&Turnshek(2000)only2of14can- didate DLA systems from the IUE survey of Lanzetta et al. As there clearly is no DLA absorber in the sightline towards (1995)havebeenconfirmed.Q2112+059addsonetothelistof Q2112+059,andasthecentroidoftheextendedobjectwehave non-confirmedcandidates. detected is closely aligned with the position of the QSO (to within0.07arcsec),weconcludethatwehavedetectedthehost galaxyofQ2112+059.We nowreturntoadiscussionofwhat J.U.Fynboetal.:DeepimagingofQ2112+059:AbrighthostgalaxybutnoDLAabsorber 5 can be learned about the nature of this galaxy from our deep Table 2. Size, absolute magnitude and redshift of the host of imaging. Q2112+059,andofRadioGalaxies(RG),RadioLoadQuasars An attempt to fit a 2D galaxy model to the 2D PSF sub- (RLQ)andRadioQuietQuasars(RQQ)intheworkbyMcLure tractedimage shownin Fig 3 wasunsuccessfulas the signal– etal.(1999). to–noiseoftheimagewastoopoortoprovidemeaningfulcon- ¯ ¯ straints.However,thealignmentoftheQSOwiththecentroid object Re,rms Lgal/LQSO Mgal,rms z kpc of its host, and the fact that there is no evidence in the 2D Q2112+059 3.6 0.035 −23.6 0.457 residualimage(Fig.3)foranyelongationoftheextendedob- RG 14.9,5.4 25–3000 −23.65,0.50 0.174–0.244 RLQ 11.2,4.5 0.17–1.3 −23.89,0.29 0.173–0.258 ject, suggest that we could significantly lower the number of RQQ 9.8,4.8 0.06–5 −23.27,0.52 0.115–0.239 fitting parameters, and at the same time increase the signal– to–noise of the data to fit, if we returned to the 1D regime. Again,asinthe2Dcase,weareleftwiththedegenerateprob- largeand at radiilargerthan 3.5arcsec where the uncertainty lemofdecidinghowtoscalethePSFwesubtractfromthedata. in themeasurementofthesky–levelbecomesdominant(sky– Galaxy cores are knownoften to have centralspikes (see e.g. levelerrorsareshownasshortdashcurvesinFig.5).Atradii Møller etal. 1995)which couldbe dueeither to centralpoint between0.5and3.5arcsectheprofileisverywelldetermined. sources(AGN),tocentraldensitycuspsor(whichisthemost likely)toacombinationofboth(foradiscussionseeStiavelli Fig.5ashowsthatitisnotpossibletoobtainanacceptable etal.1993).InthecaseofQ2112+059thereclearlyisacentral fitwithanexponentialdiscprofileforanyscalelength.Incon- AGN(theQSO),whichisthepointsourcewewishtoseparate trast,asseeninFig.5b,amodelwithanR1/4outerprofilewith out.Therefore,asinMølleretal.(1995)webreakthedegener- aneffectiveradiusofRe = 0.53arcsec(3.6kpc)andamodi- acybyimposingtheconditionthatthecentralprofilemustbe fiedHubbleprofilewithacoreradiusofRc =0.07arcsec(0.5 isothermalinthesensethatthegalaxycoreisfittedbyamod- kpc)inthecoreprovidesanexcellentfit. ifiedHubbleprofile.Thisconditioncloselycorrespondstothe requirementwe used for the 2D PSF subtraction,namelythat 5. SummaryandDiscussion theresidualmustbe“flat”or“smooth”inthecentre.Withthis assumptionweeffectivelyassignthemaximumpossiblefluxto Based on an IUE spectrum of Q2112+059 Lanzetta et al. the centralpoint–source,and thereforeobtaina lower limitto (1995)reportedacandidatedampedLyαlineatz=0.2039.Sub- thefluxofstellarorigin.However,thecentraldensitycuspsof sequentHSTspectroscopy(Fig.4)hasnotconfirmedthis.This localearly–typegalaxiesdonotcontainanysignificantfraction result is important in its own right as DLAs are very rare at ofthetotalstellarlight(1–10%ofthefluxmeasuredinsidethe z <1.InthesampleofDLAspresentedinWolfeetal.(1995) galaxycore,Mølleretal.1995),sotheresultinguncertaintyon thereare10DLAsatz<1.0.Ofthe10only4areatz<0.5,and thefluxfromthetotalstellarcomponentisinsignificant. oneofthosewasthecandidateDLAtowardsQ2112+059. Forthe1DPSFweagainusedtheweightedmeanofthe5 Having ruled out the presence of an intervening DLA at field stars(allfield stars were givenweightscorrespondingto z = 0.2039, we find that we are forced to interpret the ellip- their flux, except star E which was given a lower weight be- tical galaxy we detect under the PSF of Q2112+059 as the cause of the nearby saturated star which caused variable sky host galaxy of the QSO. The host galaxyhas an I-bandmag- across the profile). In Fig. 5a and Fig. 5b we plot the host nitude of 18.8 (total magnitude determined from the model surfacebrightnesspersquarearcsec(µ )againstR1/4.Super- fit), and an effective radius of 3.6 kpc. I=18.8 correspondsto I imposed on the data are profiles corresponding to a range of Mobs = −23.6 (no k-correction) in the assumed cosmology I galaxymodels.InFig.5awehavesuperimposedsixexponen- (Sect.1). tialdiscprofiles McLure et al. (1999) find that both radio galaxies (RGs), radioloudQSOs(RLQs)andbrightradioquietQSOs(RQQs) I(R)=I0×exp(−R/Rs) preferentiallyarehostedbymassive,brightellipticalgalaxies. withscalelengthsR (0.1–0.6arcsec),andinFig.5btheradial Our detection of a bright elliptical galaxy hosting the radio s profileofamodelwithanR1/4outerprofile quiet Q2112+059is consistent with this result. In Table 2 we I(R)=I0×exp(−7.67×((R/Re)0.25−1)), cthoamtpthaerehoousrt greasluaxltystooftQho2s1e12o+f0M59cLisurienetthealb.r(i1g9h9t9e)nadnodffitnhde andamodifiedHubbleprofile absolutemagnitudedistribution,buthasasmallereffectivera- I(R)∝(1+(R/R )2)−1, diusthananyRQQhostgalaxyintheirsample. c Schneideretal.(1983)studiedthebrightestclustergalax- in the core. The models shown were produced on a 2D sub– ies in 83 Abell clusters (with redshifts in the same range as pixelgridandconvolvedwiththeobserved2DPSF. Thefinal theMcLureetal.samples).Theyfoundatightcorrelationbe- 1Dmodelprofileswerethendeterminedasazimuthalaverages tween the core radii and effective radii. The host galaxy of usingthesameprocedureasforthedata. Q2112+059fallsnicelyonthiscorrelation,butissmallerthan It is seen that the radial profile of the host is noisy in the anyofthebrightestclustergalaxiesoftheSchneideretal.sam- central0.5arcsecwheretheerrorsfromthePSFsubtractionare ple. 6 J.U.Fynboetal.:DeepimagingofQ2112+059:AbrighthostgalaxybutnoDLAabsorber Compared to the work on local early type galaxies by Kormendy (1977), the effective radius of the host galaxy of Q2112+059fallsintheoverlappingregionbetween“compact” and“normal”earlytypegalaxies. Finally,sincethehostgalaxywehavedetectedisaspheroid we can estimate the mass of the black hole using the correla- tionsderivedbyMagorrianetal.(1998)assumingthatthecor- relationfoundatz=0isalsovalidatz=0.457.Wederiveablack holemassofabout9×109M⊙. Acknowledgments We thank B. Januzzi for providing us with results on metal absorption lines in the FOS spectrum of Q2112+0519 prior to their publication.We are gratefulto our refereeDr. Villar– Martinforsuggestionsandcommentswhichhelpedclarifying our manuscript on several important points and significantly improvedthepresentationofourresults. References BertinE,ArnoutsS,1996,A&AS117,393B FynboJ.U,MøllerP.,WarrenS.J.,1999,MNRAS305,849 FynboJ.U,MøllerP.,ThomsenB.,2000,In:‘AstrophysicsResearch and Science Education’, edt. C. Impey, (Notre Dame Press), p. 237 FynboJ.U,ThomsenB.,MøllerP.,2000,A&A353,457 JannuziB.T.,BahcallJ.N.,BergeronJ.,etal.,1998,ApJS118,1 KormendyJ.,1977,ApJ218,333 LandoltA.U.,1992,AJ104,340 LanzettaK.,WolfeA.M.andTurnshekD.A.,1995,ApJ440,435 LeBrunV.,BergeronJ.,Boisse´P.,DeharvengJ.M.,1997,A&A321, 733 MagorrianJ.,TremaineS.,RichstoneD.,etal.,1998,AJ115,2285 McLure R.J., KuKula M.J., Dunlop J.S.,et al., 1999, MNRAS 308, 377 MøllerP.,Stiavelli,M.,Zeilinger,W.W.,1995,MNRAS276,979 MøllerP.,WarrenS.,1993,A&A270,43 MøllerP.,WarrenS.,1998,MNRAS299,661 RaoS.M.,TurnshekD.A.,ApJinpress(astro-ph/9909164) SchneiderD.P.,GunnJ.E.,HoesselJ.G.,1983,ApJ268,476 StetsonP.,1987,PASP99,191 StetsonP.,1999,”User’sManualforDAOPHOTII” Stiavelli,M.,Møller,P.,Zeilinger,W.W.,1993,A&A277,421 WolfeA.M.,LanzettaK.M.,FoltzC.B.,ChaffeeF.H.,1995,ApJ454, 698

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