Related papers: Dusty MgII Absorbers: Implications for the GRB/Qua…
We use new Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and archival Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) observations to study interstellar B II 1362 and O I 1355 absorption along seven sightlines. Our new column density…
We present observational evidences that dust in the circumnuclear region of AGNs has different properties than in the Galactic diffuse interstellar medium. By comparing the reddening of optical and infrared broad lines and the X-ray…
We present a sample of 68 low-z MgII low-ionization broad absorption-line (loBAL) quasars. The sample is uniformly selected from the SDSS5 according to the following criteria: (1) 0.4<z<0.8, (2) median S/N>7, and (3) MgII absorption-line…
We examine the dust distribution around a sample of 70,000 low redshift galaxy groups and clusters derived from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. By correlating spectroscopically identified background quasars with the galaxy groups we obtain…
We use the average E(B-V) and ZnII column densities of a sample of z~1 CaII (3935, 3970) absorption line systems selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS DR4) to show that on average, with conservative assumptions regarding…
Studying absorption and scattering of X-ray radiation by interstellar dust grains allows us to access the physical and chemical properties of cosmic grains even in the densest regions of the Galaxy. We aim at characterising the dust…
The physical properties of Milky Way Mgii-bearing gas remain poorly constrained due to the saturation of the near-UV doublet. We utilize the weaker Mgii $\lambda\lambda$1239, 1240 doublet from 482 archival HST/COS extragalactic sightlines…
We study the cross-correlation between 212 MgII quasar absorption systems and \~20,000 Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 1 in the redshift range 0.4<z<0.8. The MgII systems were selected to…
We measure the width of the MgII $\lambda2799$ line in quasar spectra from the SDSS, 2QZ and 2SLAQ surveys and, by invoking an unnormalised virial mass estimator, relate the scatter in line width to the scatter in mass in the underlying…
To explore the role of titanium- and calcium-dust depletion in gas in and around galaxies we systematically study Ti/Ca abundance ratios in intervening absorption-line systems at low and high redshift. We investigate high-resolution optical…
Using a sample of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows detected by both the X-Ray and the UV/Optical Telescopes (XRT and UVOT) on Swift, we modelled the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) to determine gas column densities and dust extinction…
We have obtained spatially resolved spectra of the z=3.911 triply imaged QSO APM08279+5255 using the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We study the line of sight equivalent width (EW)…
We map the radial and azimuthal distribution of Mg II gas within 200 kpc (physical) of 4000 galaxies at redshifts 0.5 < z < 0.9 using co-added spectra of more than 5000 background galaxies at z > 1. We investigate the variation of Mg II…
We show that the extinction of quasar absorbers increases exponentially with the logarithmic column density of any volatile metal (e.g. zinc), with a charateristic turning point above which the quasars are severely dimmed. We derive the…
We present measurements of the 3.4-micron hydrocarbon dust absorption feature, and four visual diffuse interstellar bands, for twelve highly reddened (9.0<A(V)<15.8), early-type stars identified from the Stephenson (1992) catalogue,…
We present a study of the extinction and depletion-derived dust properties of gamma-ray burst (GRB) absorbers at $1<z<3$ showing the presence of neutral carbon (\ion{C}{I}). By modelling their parametric extinction laws, we discover a broad…
Low-ionization transitions such as the MgII 2796/2803 doublet trace cold gas in the vicinity of galaxies. It is not clear whether this gas is part of the interstellar medium of large proto-disks, part of dwarfs, or part of entrained…
(Abridged) We compared the quantified morphological properties of 37 intermediate redshift MgII absorption selected galaxies to the properties of the absorbing halo gas, observed in the spectra of background quasars. The galaxy morphologies…
Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) offer a potential way to extend the Hubble diagram to very high redshifts and to constrain the nature of dark energy in a way complementary to distant type Ia supernovae. However, gravitational lensing systematically…
The current status and remaining questions of MgII absorbers are reviewed with an eye toward new results incorporating high quality Hubble Space Telescope images of the absorbing galaxies. In the end, we find that our current picture of…