QSO Absorption Lines: Proceedings of the ESO Workshop Held at Garching, Germany, 21–24 November 1994

481 Pages·1995·21.274 MB·English

by  Ray Weymann (auth.), Georges Meylan (eds.)

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+JES+
ESOASTROPHYSICS SYMPOSIA
(()) European Southern Observatory
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Series Editor: Philippe Crane
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg GmbH
Georges Meylan (Ed.)
QSO Absorption Lines
Proceedings of the ESO Workshop
Held at Garching, Germany,
21-24 November 1994
Springer
Volume Editor
Georges Meylan
European Southern Observatory
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
D-85748 Garching, Germany
Series Editor
Philippe Crane
European Southern Observatory
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
D-85748 Garching, Germany
Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication Data
CSO ~bsorption lines ; proceedings of the ESO workshop held at
Garching, Germany, 21-24 November 1994 I 0. Meylan. ed.
p. em. -- <ESO astrophysics symposia)
Includes b1bllographlcal references and 1nde~.
ISBN 978-3-662-22373-4 ISBN 978-3-540-49458-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-49458-4
1. Quasars--Spectra--Congresses. 2. Absorption spectra
-Congresses. 3. Red shift--Congresses. 4. Gala~les--Congresses.
I. Meylan, G. IGeorgesl II. European Southern Observatory.
III. Ser1es.
06860.0764 1995
523. 1'15--dcZO 95-31647
· CIP
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©Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1995
Originally published by Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York in 1995
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1995
Typesetting: Camera ready by author/editor
SPIN: 10481224 42/3142-543210-Printed on acid-free paper
Preface
The controversial question of whether the majority of the narrow absorption lines
observed in QSO spectra represent cosmological intervening systems or ejecta
from the QSO themselves is settled. QSO absorption line spectroscopy, initially
a mere technique, has matured into an essential extragalactic research tool for
understanding the content of the Universe at redshifts between 0 and 4, and
beyond.
The only previous important meeting devoted to "QSO Absorption Lines"
was held in May 1987 at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore,
Maryland, U.S.A. Since that time, nearly a decade ago, research has been ex
tremely active in this now well-established field of astrophysics. Theoretical stud
ies and simulations have taken advantage of the constant progress in computer
technology, and during these last few years, the observational results have bene
fited largely from the new facillities offered by the Hubble Space Telescope in the
UV wavelength range and the Keck Telescope for high-resolution spectroscopy.
These proceedings contain the papers presented at the ESO workshop on
"QSO Absorption Lines" held during November 21 - 24, 1994 in Garching bei
Miinchen, Germany. The papers summarize the current state of our understand
ing of this field and review the new observational results and theoretical develop
ments. The different sections address the following topics: damped Lyman-alpha
systems, abundances, absorption lines from gas in our Galaxy, metal rich sys
tems at low and intermediate redshifts, BAL QSOs and quasar environment,
Lyman-alpha systems at low and bight redshifts, large-scale structure, the UV
background, and formation of absorbing systems.
It is a great pleasure to acknowlegde the essential input of the scientific
organizing committee: Jacqueline Bergeron, Patrick Petitjean, Peter Shaver, and
Joseph Wampler. Simon White is warmly thanked for chairing the discussions
of the poster sessions. The organisational success of this conference was mostly
due to the now legendary efficiency of Christina Stoffer from ESO. And above
all, I wish to express my gratitude to all the participants for contributing to an
interesting and stimulating workshop: it is they who made the workshop happen,
and this is also true for these proceedings!
European Southern Observatory Georges Meylan
Garching, May 1995
Contents
PART I INTRODUCTION
QSO Absorption Lines: Progress, Problems, and Opportunities 3
R.J. Weymann
PART II DAMPED LYMAN-ALPHA SYSTEMS
Evolution of the Neutral Gas and Metal Content of Damped
Lyman-Alpha Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
A.M. Wolfe
Consequences of Dust in Damped Lyman-Alpha Systems 23
S.M. Fall and Y.C. Pei
Are Studies of Dust in Damped Lyman-Alpha Systems Biased
by Extinction ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
P. Boisse
QSO Absorption by Nearby Galaxies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
M. Trewhella, M. Disney, and J. Davies
The Mass Spectrum of Giant Hydrogen Clouds Associated with
Damped Lyman-Alpha Absorbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
V.K. Khersonsky and D.A. Turnshek
A Damped Lyman-Alpha Survey at z < 1.65 43
S. Rao, D.A. Turnshek, and F. Briggs
High Redshift Lyman Limit and Damped Lyman-Alpha
Absorbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
L.J. Storrie-Lombardi, R.G. McMahon, M.J. Irwin,
and C. Hazard
Moderate Resolution Studies of Damped Ly1nan-Alpha Systems
at High Redshift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
J. Saucedo and J. Bechtold
VIII
Near-Infrared Ho: Searches for Companion Galaxies to Damped
>
Lyman-Alpha Systems at z 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
A.J. Bunker, S.J. Warren, P.C. Hewett, and D.L. Clements
Lyman-Alpha Emission from Galaxies at High Redshifts 55
M. Pettini, R.W. Hunstead, D.L. King, and L.J. Smith
PART III ABUNDANCES
Abundances and Nature of the Absorbers 61
P. Petitjean
The Chemical Evolution of Damped Lyman-Alpha Galaxies 71
M. Pettini, D.L. King, L.J. Smith, and R.W. Hunstead
Chemical Evolution of (Proto-) Galactic Disks and Metal
Abundances of Damped Lyman-Alpha Absorbers . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
U. Fritze- v. Alvensleben
Abundances and Ionization in Multiple-Component Absorbers 85
R.F. Green, D. York, K. Huang, J. Bechtold, D. Welty,
M. Carlson, P. Khare, and V. Kulkarni
Element Abundances at High Redshifts: The N f 0 Ratio at
Low Metallicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
K. Lipman, M. Pettini, and R.W. Hunstead
Abundances in the Lyman-Alpha Clouds 95
S. Savaglio and J .K. Webb
Relative Metal Abundance Patterns in Two Damped
Lyman-Alpha Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
L. Lu, B.D. Savage, T.M. Tripp, and D.M. Meyer
As Metal Poor as It Could Be: the Damped System at z=3.390
Towards QSO 0000-2619 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
G. Vladilo, S. D'Odorico, P. Molaro, and S. Savaglio
PART IV ABSORPTION LINES FROM GAS
IN OUR GALAXY
Lessons Learned from UV Absorption Lines at z = 0 107
E.B. Jenkins
IX
Probing the Outer Galactic Halo with the GHRS 119
B.D. Savage, L. Lu, and ICR. Sembach
Detection of Highly Ionized Galactic HVCs Toward
Markarian 509 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
K.R. Sembach, B.D. Savage, L. Lu, and E. Murphy
PART V METAL-RICH SYSTEMS AT LOW AND
INTERMEDIATE REDSHIFTS
The Subclasses of Metal-Rich Absorbers 127
J. Bergeron
Observational Constraints on the Nature of Low-Redshift
Lyman-Alpha Absorbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
V. LeBrun, J. Bergeron, and P. Boisse
The Nature and Evolution of Absorption-Selected Galaxies 139
C.C. Steidel
From Metal-Line Absorption Profiles to Halo Kinematics? 153
C.W. Churchill, S.S. Vogt, and C.C. Steidel
Keck HIRES Spectroscopy: Low-Redshift Mg II and
Lyman-Alpha Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
D.S. Womble
Mg II Absorption from Low-Redshift Galaxies 161
D.V. Bowen, J.C. Blades, and M. Pettini
The Sizes of Mg II Absorption Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
M.J. Drinkwater, R.L. Webster, and P.A. Thomas
Hunting for Mg II Absorbers with Fabry-Perot Imaging 169
G. Thimm
Intrinsic Interstellar Absorption in Two Radio Galaxies at z=O.S 171
S. di Serego Alighieri, A. Cimatti, and S. Savaglio
Molecular Absorption in the Millimeter Range 175
T. Wiklind and F. Combes
CO Emission at z = 0.437 Toward 3C 196 179
D.T. Frayer and R.L. Brown
X
Automated Search for Absorption Systems in Low-Resolution
QSO Spectra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
S. Lopez and L. Wisotzki
Quantitative Spectroscopy of HS 1700+6416 with
the Hubble Space Telescope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
D. Reimers, S. Kohler, and H.-J. Hagen
Reanalysis of the Lyman Limit Systems in QSO HS 1700+6416 193
R. Riediger and P. Petitjean
Metal Line Absorptions Toward the QSO HS1700+6416 195
J.L. Sanz, P.M. Rodr:iguez-Pascual, A. de la Fuente,
M.C. Recondo, J. Clavel, M. Santos-Lleo, W. Wamsteker
High Signal-to-Noise Echelle Spectroscopy of HS 1946+7658 197
T.M. Tripp, L. Lu, and B.D. Savage
Redshift Evolution of the Carbon Abundance in Galaxies 199
E.A. Stengler-Larrea
Recent Results on QSO Absorption Lines 201
E.M. Burbidge
Fine-Structure Doublets in QSO Spectra and Variability of
the Fine-Structure Constant o: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
S.A. Levshakov and S. D'Odorico
Limits on Star Formation Rates in Four Quasar Metal-Line
Absorbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
N. Bergvall, G. Ostlin, K.-G. Karlsson, E. Omdahl,
and J. Ronnback
A Group of Galaxies at z = 2.38 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
P. Francis, B. Woodgate, S.J. Warren, P. M¢ller, J. Lowenthal,
and T. Williams
A Narrow-Line Emission Galaxy at z = 2.8 in the Field
of Q0831+128 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
A. Aragon-Salamanca
PART VI BAL QSOS AND QUASAR ENVIRONMENT
Broad Absorption Line Quasars: An Overview 213
R.J. Weymann