Absorption Systems in the Spectra of 66 z ≳ 4 Quasars
Abstract
We present high signal-to-noise, ~5 Å resolution (FWHM) spectra of 66 z ≳ 4 bright quasars obtained with the 4 m Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory and 4.2 m William Hershel telescopes. The primary goal of these observations was to undertake a new survey for intervening absorption systems detected in the spectra of background quasars. We look for both Lyman-limit systems (column densities N_(H I) ≥ 1.6 × 10^(17) atoms cm^(-2)) and damped Lyα systems (column densities N_(H I) ≥ 2 × 10^(20) atoms cm^(-2)). This work resulted in the discovery of 49 Lyman-limit systems, 15 of which are within 3000 km s^(-1) of the quasar emission and thus might be associated with the quasar itself, 26 new damped Lyα absorption candidates, 15 of which have z > 3.5, and numerous metal absorption systems. In addition, 10 of the quasars presented here exhibit intrinsic broad absorption lines.
Additional Information
© 2001 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2000 November 27; accepted 2001 January 9. The authors are indebted to the referee, Julia Kennefick, for helpful comments. C. P. warmly thanks Max Pettini for useful suggestions on an earlier version of this manuscript, Bob Carswell for help with his code, and PPARC and the Isaac Newton Trust for support. L. S. L. is grateful to the staff at CTIO for their expert assistance in obtaining some of the observations presented here. R. G. M. would like to thank the Royal Society for support. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED), which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This paper is based on observations obtained at the William Herschel Telescope which is operated on the island of La Palma by the Isaac Newton Group in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, on observations made at the Cerro Tololo Intra-American Observatory which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation as part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories and on data obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation.Attached Files
Published - Péroux_2001_AJ_121_1799.pdf
Submitted - 0101179.pdf
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- Eprint ID
- 75447
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- CaltechAUTHORS:20170327-160125404
- Royal Society
- NASA/JPL/Caltech
- W. M. Keck Foundation
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2017-03-27Created from EPrint's datestamp field
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2021-11-15Created from EPrint's last_modified field
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- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)