Loading…

DISCOVERY OF A DAMPED Lyα ABSORBER AT z = 3.3 ALONG A GALAXY SIGHT-LINE IN THE SSA22 FIELD

Using galaxies as background light sources to map the Ly alpha absorption lines is a novel approach to study Damped Ly alpha Absorbers (DLAs). We report the discovery of an intervening z= 3.335 + or - 0.007 DLA along a galaxy sight-line identified among 80 Lyman Break Galaxy (LBG) spectra obtained w...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2016-02, Vol.817 (2), p.161
Main Authors: Mawatari, K, Inoue, A K, Kousai, K, Hayashino, T, Cooke, R, Prochaska, J X, Yamada, T, Matsuda, Y
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Using galaxies as background light sources to map the Ly alpha absorption lines is a novel approach to study Damped Ly alpha Absorbers (DLAs). We report the discovery of an intervening z= 3.335 + or - 0.007 DLA along a galaxy sight-line identified among 80 Lyman Break Galaxy (LBG) spectra obtained with our Very Large Telescope/Visible Multi-Object Spectrograph survey in the SSA22 field. The measured DLA neutral hydrogen (H i) column density is log(N sub(H i)/cm super(-2)) = 21.68 + or - 0.17. The DLA covering fraction over the extended background LBG is >70% (2[sigma]), yielding a conservative constraint on the DLA area of [> ~]1 kpc super(2). Our search for a counterpart galaxy hosting this DLA concludes that there is no counterpart galaxy with star formation rate larger than a few M sub([middot in circle]) yr super(-1), ruling out an unobscured violent star formation in the DLA gas cloud. We also rule out the possibility that the host galaxy of the DLA is a passive galaxy with M[low *] [> ~] 5 x 10 super(10)M sub([middot in circle]) or a heavily dust-obscured galaxy with E (B- V) [> ~] 2. The DLA may coincide with a large-scale overdensity of the spectroscopic LBGs. The occurrence rate of the DLA is compatible with that of DLAs found in QSO sight-lines.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/0004-637X/817/2/161