Mapping the spatial extent of H I-rich absorbers using Mg II absorption along gravitational arcs

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dc.article.numberA200
dc.catalogadoraba
dc.contributor.authorBerg, T. A. M.
dc.contributor.authorAfruni, A.
dc.contributor.authorLedoux, C.
dc.contributor.authorLópez, S.
dc.contributor.authorNoterdaeme, P.
dc.contributor.authorTejos, N.
dc.contributor.authorHernández Guajardo, Joaquín Aléxis
dc.contributor.authorBarrientos, Luis Felipe
dc.contributor.authorJohnston, E. J.
dc.date.accessioned2025-04-01T13:14:01Z
dc.date.available2025-04-01T13:14:01Z
dc.date.issued2025
dc.description.abstractH I-rich absorbers seen within quasar spectra contain the bulk of neutral gas in the Universe. However, the spatial extent of these reservoirs are not extensively studied due to the pencil beam nature of quasar sightlines. Using two giant gravitational arc fields (at redshifts 1.17 and 2.06) as 2D background sources with known strong Mg II absorption observed with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer integral field spectrograph (IFS), we investigated whether spatially mapped Mg II absorption can predict the presence of strong H I systems, and determine both the physical extent and H I mass of the two absorbing systems. We created a simple model of an ensemble of gas clouds in order to simultaneously predict the H I column density and gas covering fraction of H I-rich absorbers based on observations of the Mg II rest-frame equivalent width in IFS spaxels. We first test the model on the lensing field with H I observations already available from the literature, finding that we can recover H I column densities consistent with the previous estimates (although with large uncertainties). We then use our framework to simultaneously predict the gas covering fraction, H I column density and total H I gas mass (MHI) for both fields. We find that both of the observed strong systems have a covering fraction of ≈ 70% and are likely damped Lyman α systems (DLAs) with MHI > 109 M⊙. Our model shows that the typical Mg II metrics used in the literature to identify the presence of DLAs are sensitive to the gas covering fraction. However, these Mg II metrics are still sensitive to strong H I, and can be still applied to absorbers towards gravitational arcs or other spatially extended background sources. Based on our results, we speculate that the two strong absorbers are likely representative of a neutral inner circumgalactic medium and are a significant reservoir of fuel for star formation within the host galaxies.
dc.description.funderFONDECYT; Folio: 1231187
dc.description.funderEuropean Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere under ESO programme(s); Folios: 098.A-0459(A) and 0103.A-0485(B)
dc.format.extent15 páginas
dc.fuente.origenORCID
dc.identifier.doi10.1051/0004-6361/202452199
dc.identifier.eissn1432-0746
dc.identifier.issn0004-6361
dc.identifier.scopusid2-s2.0-85215408024
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202452199
dc.identifier.urihttps://repositorio.uc.cl/handle/11534/103065
dc.identifier.wosidWOS:001398599400013
dc.information.autorucInstituto de Astrofísica; Hernández Guajardo, Joaquín Aléxis; 0000-0003-0966-1203; 1064498
dc.information.autorucInstituto de Astrofísica; Barrientos, Luis Felipe; 0000-0003-0151-0718; 102167
dc.language.isoen
dc.nota.accesocontenido completo
dc.revistaAstronomy and Astrophysics
dc.rightsacceso abierto
dc.rights.licenseAttribution 4.0 International
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectGalaxies: evolution
dc.subjectGalaxies: halos
dc.subjectGalaxies: high-redshift
dc.subjectQuasars: absorption lines
dc.subject.ddc520
dc.subject.deweyAstronomíaes_ES
dc.titleMapping the spatial extent of H I-rich absorbers using Mg II absorption along gravitational arcs
dc.typeartículo
dc.volumen693
sipa.codpersvinculados1064498
sipa.codpersvinculados102167
sipa.trazabilidadORCID;2025-03-03
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