The nature of distant galaxies producing multiple C 4 absorption lines in the spectra of high-redshift quasars

Aragón-Salamanca, Alfonso; Ellis, Richard S.; Schwartzenberg, JM; Bergeron, John A.

doi:10.1086/173623

Cited by 26 publications

(30 citation statements)

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“…There is no previous report of detection of these objects in the literature. Aragon-Salamanca et al (1994) detected a faint object (K % 19:75) with an angular distance of 3 00 from the QSO line of sight, which could be object À1.81+2.04. Object À1.81+2.04 is evident in the HST F702W image.…”

Section: Q1329+412mentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive Optics Imaging of Low-Redshift Damped Lyα Quasar Absorbers

et al. 2006

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We have carried out a high angular resolution near-infrared imaging study of the fields of six quasars with seven strong absorption-line systems at z < 0:5, using the Hokupa'a adaptive optics system and the Quick Infrared Camera on the Gemini North telescope. These absorption systems include four classical damped Ly absorbers ( DLAs), two sub-DLAs, and one Lyman limit system. Images were obtained in the H or K 0 filters with FWHM between 0B2 and 0B5 with the goal of detecting the absorbing galaxies and identifying their morphologies. Features are seen at projected separations of 0B5-16B0 from the quasars, and all the fields show features at less than 2 00 separation. We find candidate absorbers in all seven systems. With the assumption that some of these are associated with the absorbers, the absorbers are low-luminosity 0:1L Ã H or L Ã K ; we do not find any large, bright candidate absorbers in any of our fields. Some fields show compact features that are too faint for quantitative morphology but could arise in dwarf galaxies.

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Section: Q1329+412mentioning

confidence: 99%

Adaptive Optics Imaging of Low-Redshift Damped Lyα Quasar Absorbers

et al. 2006

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“…The exact surface density of sources depends upon the passbands and colours used to define an ERO as well as the magnitude limit of the sample, reaching ∼0.1 sources per square arcmin redder than ( I − K )>5 at K =21 (Cowie et al, in preparation). EROs also appear to have higher surface densities, ×10–100, in the vicinity of high‐redshift active galactic nuclei (AGN) compared with the general field (Elston et al 1988; Soifer et al 1992; Aragon‐Salamanca et al 1994; Cowie et al 1994; Graham et al 1994; Hu & Ridgway 1994; Dey, Spinrad & Dickinson 1995; Graham & Dey 1996; Yamada et al 1997). This apparent clustering has led to speculation that at least some of the EROs are physically associated with luminous AGN.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The discovery of ERO counterparts to faint submillimetre galaxies

Smail

Ivison

Kneib

et al. 1999

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

173

242

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We have used deep ground‐based imaging in the near‐infrared (near‐IR) to search for counterparts to the luminous submillimetre (submm) sources in the catalogue of Smail et al. For the majority of the submm sources the near‐IR imaging supports the counterparts originally selected from deep optical images. However, in two cases (10 per cent of the sample) we find a relatively bright near‐IR source close to the submm position, sources that were unidentified in the deep Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and ground‐based R‐band images used by Smail et al. We place limits on colours of these sources from deep high‐resolution Keck II imaging and find they have 2σ limits of (I−K)≳6.8 and (I−K)≳6.0, respectively. Both sources thus class as extremely red objects (EROs). Using the spectral properties of the submm source in the radio and submm we argue that these EROs are probably the source of the submm emission, rather than the bright spiral galaxies previously identified by Smail et al. This connection provides important insights into the nature of the enigmatic ERO population and faint submm galaxies in general. From the estimated surface density of these submm‐bright EROs we suggest that this class accounts for the majority of the reddest members of the ERO population, in good agreement with the preliminary conclusions of pointed submm observations of individual EROs. We conclude that the most extreme EROs represent a population of dusty, ultraluminous galaxies at high redshifts; further study of these will provide useful insights into the nature of star formation in obscured galaxies in the early Universe. The identification of similar counterparts in blank‐field submm surveys will be extremely difficult owing to their faintness (K∼20.5, I≳26.5). Finally, we discuss the radio and submm properties of the two submm‐bright EROs discovered here and suggest that both galaxies lie at z≳2.

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“…The variety of colour criteria used to define EROs, e.g., (R−K)≥5, ≥ 5.3, ≥ 6.0 or (I−K)≥ 4, ≥ 5, together with different survey depths and apparently strong clustering (Daddi et al 2000a) have led to a wide dispersion in the claimed surface densities of EROs (e.g. Aragón‐Salamanca et al 1994; Cowie et al 1994; Hu & Ridgway 1994; Dey et al 1995; Moustakas et al 1997; Yamada et al 1997; Beckwith et al 1998; Eisenhardt et al 1998; Barger, Cowie & Trentham 1999; Thompson et al 1999; Daddi et al 2000a; McCracken et al 2000, hereafter M00). The larger and newer surveys suggest that to K≲19 the surface density of (R−K)≥6.0 galaxies is 0.07±0.01 arcmin −2 (Daddi et al 2000a), increasing to 0.33±0.05 arcmin −2 at the faintest limit probed to date K≲20 (Thompson et al 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Hubble Space Telescope lensing survey of X-ray-luminous galaxy clusters — II. A search for gravitationally lensed EROs⋆

Smith¹,

Smail²,

Kneib³

et al. 2002

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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We present the results of a survey for extremely red objects (EROs) undertaken in the fields of 10 massive galaxy cluster lenses at z∼0.2, combining sensitive, high‐resolution Hubble Space Telescope imaging with deep, half‐arcsecond K‐band imaging from UKIRT. We detect 60 EROs with (R−K)≥5.3, of which 26 have (R−K)≥6.0 in a total image‐plane survey area of 49 arcmin2 down to K=20.6, including one multiply imaged ERO. We use detailed models of the cluster lenses to quantify the lens amplification and thus correct the observed number counts and survey area for the effects of gravitational lensing. After making these corrections, we estimate surface densities at K≤21.6 of 2.5±0.4 and 1.2±0.3 arcmin−2 for EROs with (R−K)≥5.3 and ≥6.0 respectively. These ERO number counts agree with previous shallower surveys at K≲19, and flatten significantly at magnitudes fainter than K∼19–20. This flattening may be due to a transition from an ERO population dominated by evolved galaxies at z∼1–2(K≲19.5) to one dominated by dusty starburst galaxies at z>1(K≳19.5). We also compare our results with various model predictions, including a model that attempts to explain EROs in terms of a single population of elliptical galaxies formed at high redshift. We find that a formation epoch of zf∼2.5 for this population matches the observed surface density of (R−K)≥5.3 EROs quite well, and the (R−K)≥6.0 sample less well. More sophisticated models, including semi‐analytic prescriptions, underpredict the ERO surface density by approximately an order of magnitude, suggesting that these models produce insufficient stars and/or dust at high redshift. This deficit of EROs appears to be a general problem with models that reproduce the median redshift from K‐selected redshift surveys. One possible explanation is that the current K‐selected redshift distribution may be incomplete beyond z∼1.

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The nature of distant galaxies producing multiple C 4 absorption lines in the spectra of high-redshift quasars

Cited by 26 publications

References 0 publications

Adaptive Optics Imaging of Low-Redshift Damped Lyα Quasar Absorbers

Adaptive Optics Imaging of Low-Redshift Damped Lyα Quasar Absorbers

The discovery of ERO counterparts to faint submillimetre galaxies

A Hubble Space Telescope lensing survey of X-ray-luminous galaxy clusters — II. A search for gravitationally lensed EROs⋆

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