Related papers: Quasistellar Objects: Intervening Absorption Lines
While it is possible to explain Lyman alpha absorber counts at low redshift using gas which is associated with moderately extended galaxies (Linder 1997), absorbers are often observed to be associated with galaxies at larger impact…
A generic assumption of ionization models of quasar absorption systems is that radiation from local sources is negligible compared with the cosmological background. We test this assumption and find that it is unlikely to hold for absorbers…
We present the first results from our survey of intervening and proximate Lyman limit systems (LLSs) at $z$$\sim$2.0-2.5 using the Wide Field Camera 3 on-board the Hubble Space Telescope. The quasars in our sample are projected pairs with…
The early stage of massive galaxy evolution often involves outflows driven by a starburst or a central quasar plus cold mode accretion (infall), which adds to the mass build-up in the galaxies. To study the nature of these infall and…
We have carried out a high angular resolution near-infrared imaging study of the fields of 6 quasars with 7 strong absorption line systems at z < 0.5, using the Hokupa'a adaptive optics system and the QUIRC near-infrared camera on the…
QSO absorption spectroscopy provides a sensitive probe of both the neutral medium and diffuse ionized gas in the distant Universe. It extends 21cm maps of gaseous structures around low-redshift galaxies both to lower gas column densities…
Intrinsic absorbers are significant components of AGN environments that provide valuable information and interesting challenges. We present a very brief (and biased, and sometimes speculative) overview of intrinsic absorbers from the…
The last few years have seen a dramatic improvement in our understanding of the origin of Lyman alpha absorption systems. Hydrodynamic numerical simulations of cold dark matter dominated universes have shown that the many properties of the…
Rich complexes of associated absorption lines (AALs) in quasar spectra provide unique information about gaseous infall, outflows, and feedback processes in quasar environments. We study five quasars at redshifts 3.1 to 4.4 with AAL…
Broad absorption lines seen in some quasars prove the existence of ionized plasma outflows from the accretion disk. Outflows together with powerful jets are important feedback processes. Understanding physics behind BAL outflows might be a…
The Lyman-$\alpha$ forest refers to the series of absorption features observed in the spectra of distant quasars that are produced by neutral hydrogen in the intergalactic medium. Observed over a wide range of redshifts with both ground-…
With close pairs of quasars at different redshifts, a background quasar sightline can be used to study a foreground quasar's environment in absorption. We use a sample of 650 projected quasar pairs to study the HI Lya absorption transverse…
We have discovered two low-ionization broad absorption line quasars in programs to obtain optical spectra for radio-selected quasar candidates from the VLA FIRST Survey (Becker, White, & Helfand 1995). Both belong to the extremely rare…
We propose a three component model consisting of minihalos and galactic halos with embedded thin discs for absorbers producing all the observed classes of intervening quasar absorption line systems. We show that this model, based on CDM…
The properties of the Lyman-$\alpha$ absorptions observed in the spectra of QSOs are reviewed: the distribution of column densities and Doppler widths, the redshift evolution, the ``inverse effect'', the clustering. By interpreting the…
We present details regarding the construction of a composite spectrum of quasar (QSO) absorption line systems. In this composite spectrum we identify more than 70 absorption lines, and observe oxygen and hydrogen emission features at a…
High resolution rest frame UV quasar absorption spectra covering low and high ionization species, as well as the Lyman series lines, provide remarkably detailed information about the gaseous phases of galaxies and their environments. For…
Spectroscopy of ten quasars obtained with the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is presented. A clustering analysis reveals an excess of nearest neighbor line pairs on velocity scales of 250-750…
We present results from an ongoing search for galaxy counterparts of a subgroup of Quasar Absorption Line Systems called Damped Ly-alpha Absorbers (DLAs). DLAs have several characteristics that make them essential in the process of…
Ionizing sources embedded in the neutral intergalactic medium (IGM) before cosmological reionization generate discrete HII regions. We show that a sufficiently bright quasar (for example, one tenth as luminous as that recently discovered by…