Related papers: Atomic and Molecular Absorption at High Redshift
Absorption lines at high redshift in front of quasars are rare in the mm domain. Only five associated and five intervening systems have been reported in the literature. These bring very useful information complementary to emission lines,…
In this paper we investigate the possible reasons why HI 21-cm absorption in damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAs) has only been detected at low redshift... We suggest that the lack of 21-cm absorption detections at high redshift arises from…
Millimetre-band scans of the frequency space towards optically dim quasars is potentially a highly efficient method for detecting new high redshift molecular absorption systems. Here we describe scans towards 7 quasars over wide bandwidths…
We report a lambda > 1cm search for rotational molecular absorption towards quasars, now possible with the upgraded Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). The targets were PKS 0201+113, PKS 0336-017 and Q 0537-286, where known damped…
We present the results of three separate searches for HI 21-cm absorption in a total of twelve damped Lyman-alpha absorption systems (DLAs) and sub-DLAs over the redshift range z = 0.86-3.37. We find no absorption in the five systems for…
We have used the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association (BIMA) array to search for redshifted millimetre absorption in a sample of damped Lyman-alpha absorption systems (DLAs). This brings the number of…
We describe initial results of a search for redshifted molecular absorption toward four millimetre-loud, optically faint quasars. A wide frequency bandwidth of up to 23 GHz per quasar was scanned using the Swedish-ESO Sub-millimetre…
We report results from a deep search for redshifted HI 21cm absorption in 55 strong MgII$\lambda$2796 absorbers (having $W (MgII) > 0.5 \AA$) at intermediate redshifts, $0.58 < z_{\rm abs} < 1.70$, with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and…
We present the results of a z>2.9 survey for HI 21-cm and molecular absorption in the hosts of radio quasars using the GMRT and the Tidbinbilla 70-m telescope. Previously published searches, which are overwhelmingly at redshifts of z<1,…
QSO absorption spectra provide an extremely useful probe of possible cosmological variation in various physical constants. Comparison of H I 21cm absorption with corresponding molecular (rotational) absorption spectra allows us to constrain…
Damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAs) seen in the spectra of high-z QSOs allow us to probe the physical conditions in protogalaxies. Our understanding of physical conditions in DLAs at high-z is primarily based on the absorption lines of H_2…
We are currently undertaking a large survey for redshifted atomic and molecular absorption ... only one clear and one tentative detection were obtained: HI absorption at z = 0.097 in PKS 1555-140 and OH absorption at z =0.126 in PKS…
As part of a larger program to identify low redshift radio analogues of the damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) absorbers seen in the spectra of high redshift quasars, Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) observations have discovered two new HI…
We present the results from our search for HI 21-cm absorption in a sample of 16 strong FeII systems ($W_{\rm r}$(MgII $\lambda2796$) $\ge1.0$ \AA\ and $W_{\rm r}$(FeII $\lambda2600$) or $W_{\rm FeII}$ $\ge1$ \AA) at $0.5<z<1.5$ using the…
Recent detections of high-redshift absorption by both atomic hydrogen and molecular gas in the radio spectra of quasars have provided a powerful tool to measure possible temporal and spatial variations of physical `constants' in the…
We present the results of a survey for intervening HI 21-cm absorbers at intermediate and low redshift (0<z<1.2). For our total sample of 24 systems, we obtained high quality data for 17 systems, the other seven being severely affected by…
We have searched for redshifted absorption in the 21 cm line of neutral hydrogen toward `red quasars', which are extragalactic radio sources with a steep spectral drop between optical and infrared wavelengths. The success rate for detecting…
We report the GMRT detection of HI 21cm absorption from the $z \sim 3.39$ damped Lyman-$\alpha$ absorber (DLA) towards PKS 0201+113, the highest redshift at which 21cm absorption has been detected in a DLA. The absorption is spread over…
Spectroscopy of redshifted radio absorption of atomic and molecular species provide excellent probes of the cold component of the gas in the early Universe which can be used to address many important issues, such as measuring baryonic…
We report the detection of redshifted HI~21cm absorption in the $z \sim 2.347$ damped Lyman-$\alpha$ absorber (DLA) towards PKS B0438-436, with the Green Bank Telescope. This is the second-highest redshift at which 21cm absorption has been…