Bibcode
Heintz, K. E.; Fynbo, J. P. U.; Ledoux, C.; Jakobsson, P.; Møller, P.; Christensen, L.; Geier, S.; Krogager, J.-K.; Noterdaeme, P.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 615, id.A43, 14 pp.
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7
2018
Journal
Citations
17
Refereed citations
17
Description
The cosmic chemical enrichment as measured from damped Lyα
absorbers (DLAs) will be underestimated if dusty and metal-rich
absorbers have evaded identification. Here we report the discovery and
present the spectroscopic observations of a quasar, KV-RQ 1500-0031, at
z = 2.520 reddened by a likely dusty DLA at z = 2.428 and a strong Mg II
absorber at z = 1.603. This quasar was identified as part of the
KiDS-VIKING Red Quasar (KV-RQ) survey, specifically aimed at targeting
dusty absorbers which may cause the background quasars to escape the
optical selection of e.g. the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasar
sample. For the DLA we find an H I column density of logN(H I) = 21.2
± 0.1 and a metallicity of [X/H] = - 0.90 ± 0.20 derived
from an empirical relation based on the equivalent width of Si
IIλ 1526. We observe a total visual extinction of AV =
0.16 mag induced by both absorbers. To put this case into context we
compile a sample of 17 additional dusty (AV > 0.1 mag)
DLAs toward quasars (QSO-DLAs) from the literature for which we
characterize the overall properties, specifically in terms of H I column
density, metallicity and dust properties. From this sample we also
estimate a correction factor to the overall DLA metallicity budget as a
function of the fractional contribution of dusty QSO-DLAs to the bulk of
the known QSO-DLA population. We demonstrate that the dusty QSO-DLAs
have high metal column densities (logN(H I) + [X/H]) and are more
similar to gamma-ray burst (GRB)-selected DLAs (GRB-DLAs) than regular
QSO-DLAs. We evaluate the effect of dust reddening in DLAs as well as
illustrate how the induced color excess of the underlying quasars can be
significant (up to 1 mag in various optical bands), even for low to
moderate extinction values (AV ≲ 0.6 mag). Finally we
discuss the direct and indirect implications of a significant dust bias
in both QSO- and GRB-DLA samples.
Based on photometric data from the KiDS and VIKING surveys and follow-up
observations made with the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), installed in
the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de
Astrofísica de Canarias, on the island of La Palma.
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