The Nearby Damped Lyman-alpha Absorber SBS 1543+593: A Large HI Envelope in a Gas-Rich Galaxy Group

Abstract

We present a Very Large Array (VLA) HI 21cm map and optical observations of the region around one of the nearest damped Lyman-alpha absorbers beyond the local group, SBS 1543+593. Two previously uncataloged galaxies have been discovered and a redshift has been determined for a third. All three of these galaxies are at the redshift of SBS 1543+593 and are ~185 kpc from the damped Lyman-alpha absorber. We discuss the HI and optical properties of SBS 1543+593 and its newly identified neighbors. Both SBS 1543+593 and Dwarf 1 have baryonic components that are dominated by neutral gas -- unusual for damped Lyman-alpha absorbers for which only ~5% of the HI cross-section originates in such strongly gas-dominated systems. What remains unknown is whether low mass gas-rich groups are common surrounding gas-rich galaxies in the local universe and whether the low star-formation rate in these systems is indicative of a young system or a stable, slowly evolving system. We discuss these evolutionary scenarios and future prospects for answering these questions.

11 pages, AJ accepted

References in corpus (1)

• Cross correlation of Lyman-alpha absorbers with gas-rich galaxies

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Damped Ly-alpha Absorbers in Star-forming Galaxies at z < 0.15 Detected with the Hubble Space Telescope and Implications for Galaxy Evolution
• The gas and stellar mass of low-redshift damped Lyman-$\alpha$ absorbers
• A Sub-Damped Ly$\alpha$ Absorber with Unusual Abundances: Evidence of Gas Recycling in a Low-Redshift Galaxy Group
• Connecting high-redshift galaxy populations through observations of local Damped Lyman Alpha dwarf galaxies