A Keck HIRES Investigation of the Metal Abundances and Kinematics of the z=2.46 Damped Lya System Toward Q0201+365

Abstract

We present high resolution ($\approx 8$ \kms) spectra of the QSO Q0201+365 obtained with HIRES, the echelle spectrograph on the 10m W.M. Keck Telescope. Although we identify over $80\%$ of the absorption features and analyze several of the more complex metal-line systems, we focus our analysis on the damped \Lya system at $z=2.462$. Ionization simulations suggest the hydrogen in this system is significantly neutral and all of the observed metals are predominantly singly ionized. We measure accurate abundances for Fe, Cr, Si, Ni and place a lower limit on the abundance of Zn: [Fe/H] = $-0.830\pm 0.051$, [Cr/H] = $-0.902\pm 0.064$, [Si/H] = $-0.376\pm 0.052$, [Ni/H] = $-1.002\pm 0.054$ and [Zn/H] $>-0.562\pm 0.064$. We give evidence suggesting the actual Zn abundance is [Zn/H] $\approx -0.262$, implying the highest metallicity observed at a redshift $z\ge 2$. The relative abundances of these elements remains constant over essentially the entire system ($\approx 150$ \kms in velocity space), suggesting it is well mixed. Furthermore, we use the lack of abundance variations to infer properties of the dust responsible for element depletion. Finally, we discuss the kinematic characteristics of this damped \Lya system, comparing and contrasting it with other systems. The low-ion line profiles span $\approx 200$ \kms in velocity space and have an asymmetric shape with the strongest feature on the red edge. These kinematic characteristics are consistent with a rotating disk model.

60 pages, 20 encapsulated figures, uses aaspp4.sty. Also available at http://nately.ucsd.edu/~xavier/DLA/obs.html

Cited by in corpus (72)

• The fundamental constants and their variation: observational status and theoretical motivations
• Further Evidence for Cosmological Evolution of the Fine Structure Constant
• Damped Lyman alpha Systems
• The SDSS Damped Lya Survey: Data Release 3
• On the Kinematics of the Damped Lyman Alpha Protogalaxies
• Possible evidence for a variable fine structure constant from QSO absorption lines: motivations, analysis and results
• Metallicity Evolution of Damped Lyman-alpha Systems out to z~5
• Damped Lyman alpha absorbers at high redshift -- large disks or galactic building blocks?
• The Age-Metallicity Relation of the Universe in Neutral Gas: The First 100 Damped Lya Systems
• The Metallicity of High Redshift Galaxies: The Abundance of Zinc in 34 Damped Lyman Alpha Systems from z = 0.7 to 3.4
• Metal Abundances at z < 1.5: Fresh Clues to the Chemical Enrichment History of Damped Lyman alpha Systems
• The UCSD HIRES/KeckI Damped Lya Abundance Database: II. The Implications
• Chemical Abundances of the Damped Lya Systems at z>1.5
• Dust in High Redshift Galaxies
• CII* Absorption in Damped Lyman Alpha Systems: (I) Star Formation Rates in a Two-Phase Medium
• The UCSD HIRES/KeckI Damped Lya Abundance Database: I. The Data
• Ionization Properties and Elemental Abundances in Damped Ly alpha Systems
• Further constraints on variation of the fine structure constant from alkali doublet QSO absorption lines
• The Fundamental Plane of Damped Lyman Alpha Systems
• A Homogeneous Sample of Sub-DLAs I: Construction of the Sample and Chemical Abundance Measurements
• Dust and elemental abundances in Damped Ly alpha absorbers
• Galactic and Circumgalactic OVI and its Impact on the Cosmological Metal and Baryon Budgets at 2<z<3.5
• The Ucsd/Keck Damped Lya Abundance Database: A Decade of High Resolution Spectroscopy
• Metallicity Evolution in the Early Universe
• A Keck HIRES Investigation of the Metal Abundances and Kinematics of Three Damped Lya Systems Toward Q2206-199
• Extremely metal-poor gas at a redshift of 7
• Highly Ionized High Velocity Clouds: Intergalactic Gas in the Local Group or Distant Gas in the Galactic Halo?
• A new comprehensive set of elemental abundances in DLAs - II. Data analysis and chemical variation studies
• A comprehensive set of elemental abundances in damped Ly-alpha systems: revealing the nature of these high-redshift galaxies
• The N/Si Abundance Ratio in Fifteen Damped Lyman-alpha Galaxies: Implications for the Origin of Nitrogen
• The ESO UVES Advanced Data Products Quasar Sample - VI. Sub-Damped Lyman-$\alpha$ Metallicity Measurements and the Circum-Galactic Medium
• The UCSD HIRES/KECK I Damped Lya Abundance Database: IV. Probing Galactic Enrichment Histories with Nitrogen
• First Comparison of Ionization and Metallicity in Two Lines of Sight Toward HE 1104-1805 AB at z=1.66
• Ionized Gas in Damped Lyman Alpha Protogalaxies: I. Model-Independent Inferences From Kinematic Data
• Metals and Dust in Intermediate-redshift Damped Ly-alpha Galaxies
• Unveiling the Secrets of Metallicity and Massive Star Formation Using DLAs along Gamma-ray Bursts
• Metal abundances and ionization conditions in a possibly dust-free damped Ly-alpha system at z=2.3
• Metallicity Evolution of Damped Lyman-Alpha Galaxies
• Dissecting the Gaseous Halos of z~2 Damped Ly$\alpha$ Systems with Close Quasar Pairs
• The Physical Nature of the Lyman Limit Systems
• Bimodality in Damped Lyman alpha Systems
• On the Perils of Curve-of-Growth Analysis: Systematic Abundance Underestimates for the Gas in Gamma-Ray Burst Host Galaxies
• The UCSD HIRES/KeckI Damped Lya Abundance Database III. An Empirical Study of Photoionization in the Damped Lya System Toward GB1759+7539
• Galactic Chemical Abundances at z>3 I: First Results from the Echellette Spectrograph and Imager
• The early build-up of dust in galaxies: A study of Damped Ly alpha Systems
• Laboratory atomic transition data for precise optical quasar absorption spectroscopy
• Distinct Abundance Patterns in Multiple Damped Ly-alpha Galaxies: Evidence for Truncated Star Formation?
• The chemistry of the most metal-rich damped Lyman $\alpha$ systems at z$\sim 2$ II. Context with the Local Group
• Probing the metallicity and ionization state of the circumgalactic medium at z~6 and beyond with OI absorption
• The Chemical Uniformity of High z DLA Protogalaxies
• The Keck+Magellan Survey for Lyman Limit Absorption II: A Case Study on Metallicity Variations
• Zinc as a tracer of metallicity evolution of Damped Lyman alpha systems
• Metal-Enriched Plasma in Protogalactic Halos: A Survey of N V Absorption in High-z Damped & Sub-Damped Lyman-alpha Systems
• Metallicity in damped Lyman-alpha systems: evolution or bias?
• Damped Lyman alpha systems and galaxy formation models - II. High ions and Lyman limit systems
• On ionization effects and abundance ratios in damped Lyman alpha systems
• Echelle Spectroscopy of QSO Absorption Line Systems with Metals in the Direction of HS 1700+6416
• Evidence for Rotation in the Galaxy at z=3.15 Responsible for a Damped Lyman-alpha Absorption System in the Spectrum of Q2233+1310
• The Chemical Evolution Of High Z Galaxies From The Relative Abundances Of N, Si, S, And Fe In Damped Lyman Alpha Systems
• A Metal-Strong and Dust-Rich Damped \lya Absorption System toward the Quasar SDSS J115705.52+615521.7
• Thermal Pressures in the Interstellar Medium of the Magellanic Clouds
• Damped Lyman alpha Absorbing Galaxies At Low Redshifts z<1 From Hierarchical Galaxy Formation Models
• The host-galaxy response to the afterglow of GRB 100901A
• The Closest Damped Lyman Alpha System
• Outskirts of Distant Galaxies In Absorption
• The Chemical Evolution of the Universe I: High Column Density Absorbers
• The most metal-rich damped Lyman alpha systems at z>1.5 I: The Data
• Observed Faraday Effects in Damped Lyman-Alpha Absorbers and Lyman Limit Systems: The Magnetised Environment of Galactic Building Blocks at Redshift=2
• A search for H$\alpha$ emission in high-metallicity damped Lyman-$\alpha$ systems at $z\sim 2.4$
• A Massive, Dusty HI-Absorption-Selected Galaxy at $z\approx 2.46$ Identified in a CO Emission Survey
• Lensing by Lyman Limit Systems: Determining the Mass to Gas Ratio
• Can hidden correlations mimic a variable fine structure constant?