Mg II Detection in the Lyman Alpha Forest: Metal Rich Cloud or LSB/Dwarf Galaxy?

1997/07/14 by Christopher W. Churchill, Churchill, Christopher W., Vincent Le Brun +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #FOS: Physical sciences #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/9707155

2 pages, 1 EPS figures, conf_iap.sty To appear in 13th IAP Workshop (1-5 July 1997) "Evolution of the Intergalactic Medium from QSO Absorption Line Systems" eds. P. Petitjean & S. Charlot

openalex publication_date 1997/07/14 · arxiv created 1997/09/12 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

We report the detection of Mg II absorption in two Lyman alpha forest clouds along the line of sight to PKS 0454+039. These clouds, at redshifts z=0.6248 and z=0.9315, respectively, also have strong Fe II absorption. We present results on the z=0.9315 cloud. The upper limit on log N(HI) is 16.5 cm^-2. Based upon UV background photoionization models, we infer that the cloud has super-solar metallicity. Photoionization by a late-type stellar population is ruled out.

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