2009 (IPP)
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Item SDSS J092712.64+294344.0: recoiling black hole or merging galaxies(2009-08-01) Vivek, M.; Srianand, R.; Noterdaeme, P.; et al.We report long-slit spectroscopic observations of SDSS J092712+294344 carried-out at the recently commissioned 2m telescope in IUCAA Girawali Observatory, India. This AGN-like source is known to feature three sets of emission lines at zem = 0.6972, 0.7020 and 0.7128. Different scenarios such as a recoiling black hole after asymmetric emission of gravitational waves, binary black holes and possible merging systems are proposed for this object. We test these scenarios by comparing our spectra with that fromthe Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), obtained 4 years prior to our observations. Comparing the redshifts of [Oiii]λλ4960,5008 we put a 3σ limit on the relative acceleration to be less than 32 km s−1 yr −1 between different emitting regions. Using the 2D spectra obtained at different position angles we show that the [Oiii]λ5008 line from the zem = 0.7128 component is extended beyond the spectral point spread function.We infer the linear extent of this line emitting region is ∼ 8 kpc.We also find a tentative evidence for an offset between the centroid of the [Oiii]λ5008 line at zem = 0.7128 and the QSO trace when the slit is aligned at a position angle of 299◦ . This corresponds to the zem = 0.7128 system being at an impact parameter of ∼1 kpc with respect to the zem = 0.6972 in the north west direction. Based on our observations we conclude that the binary black hole model is most unlikely. The spatial extent andItem Understanding the redshift evolution of the luminosity functions of Lyman-alpha emitters(2009-06-01) Samui, Saumyadip; Srianand, R.; Subramanian, KandaswamyWe present a semi-analytical model of star formation which explains simultaneously the observed UV luminosity function of high redshift Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) and luminosity functions of Lyman-α emitters. We consider both models that use the Press-Schechter (PS) and Sheth-Tormen (ST) halo mass functions to calculate the abundances of dark matter halos. The Lyman-α luminosity functions at z . 4 are well reproduced with only . 10% of the LBGs emitting Lyman-α lines with rest equivalent width greater than the limiting equivalent width of the narrow band surveys. However, the observed luminosity function at z > 5 can be reproduced only when we assume that nearly all LBGs are Lyman-α emitters. Thus it appears that 4 < z < 5 marks the epoch when a clear change occurs in the physical properties of the high redshift galaxies. As Lyman-α escape depends on dust and gas kinematics of the inter stellar medium (ISM), this could mean that on an average the ISM at z > 5 could be less dusty, more clumpy and having more complex velocity field. All of these will enable easier escape of the Lyman-α photons. At z > 5 the observed Lyman-α luminosity function are well reproduced with the evolution in the halo mass function along with very minor evolution in the physical properties of high redshift galaxies. In particular, upto z = 6.5, we do not see the effect of evolving inter galactic medium (IGM) opacity on the Lyman-α escape from these galaxiesItem Quasars probing intermediate redshift star-forming galaxies(2009-12-01) Noterdaeme, P.; Srianand, R.; Mohan, V.; et al.We present a sample of 46 [Oiii]-emitting galaxies at z < 0.8 detected in the fibre spectra of quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Data Release 7 (SDSS-DR7) through an automatic search procedure. We also detect [Oii] and Hβ emission lines from most of these galaxies in the SDSS spectra. We study both the emission and absorption properties of a sub sample of 17 galaxies in the redshift range z = 0.4-0.7, where Mg ii lines are covered by the SDSS spectra. The measured lower-limits on the star-formation rates of these galaxies are in the range 0.2-20 M⊙ yr −1 . The emission line luminosities and (O/H) metallicities from R23 measured in this sample are similar to what is found in normal galaxies at these redshifts. Thus, this constitutes a unique sample of intermediate redshift star-forming galaxies where we can study the QSO absorber - galaxy connection. Strong Mg ii (Wλ2796> ∼ 1 Å) as well as Mg i absorption lines are detected in the QSO spectra at the redshift of most of these galaxies. Strong Fe ii (Wλ2600 > 1 Å) absorption lines are also generally detected whenever the appropriate wavelength ranges are covered. This suggests that most of these systems could be bona-fide Damped Lyman-α systems. We investigate various possible relations between the Mg ii rest equivalent widths and the emission line properties.We find a possible (2σ) correlation between the emission-line metallicity of the galaxies and the Mg ii rest equivalent width of the absorbers (log(O/H) + 12 = 0.1Wλ2796 + 8.27), which could be a consequence of an underlying mass-metallicity relation. However, [Oiii]-selected Mg ii systems represent only a minor fraction of the strongMg ii absorbers.We find this cannot be attributed to biases related either to the spectral signal-to-noise ratio or to the brightness of the QSOs. We measure the average observed fluxes (collected into the SDSS fibre) of the [Oii] and [Oiii] lines associated to Mg ii-selected systems through stacking technique.We find that the average lumiosities of emission lines are higher for systems with larger Wλ2796. The stacked luminosities are found to be below the typical detection limit in individual spectra, indicating that faint galaxies can contribute appreciably to the observed population of strong Mg ii absorbers at intermediate redshifts.We also present long-slit spectroscopic observations of SDSS J113108+202151, the most luminous line-emitting galaxy in our z ≥ 0.4 sample. Surprisingly, we find that the line-emitting region does not coincide with the nearby extended bright galaxy with consistent photometric redshift seen in the SDSS image.Item Optical identification of XMM sources in the CFHTLS(2009-05-01) Stalin, C. S.; Petitjean, Patrick; Srianand, R.; et al.We summarize the attempts by our group and others to derive constraints on variations of fundamental constants over cosmic time using quasar absorption lines. Most upper limits reside in the range 0.5 1.5 10 5 at the 3 level over a redshift range of approximately 0:5 2:5 for the fine-structure constant, , the proton-to-electron mass ratio, and a combination of the proton gyromagnetic factor and the two previous constants, gp( 2= ) , for only one claimed variation of . It is therefore very important to perform new measurements to improve the sensitivity of the numerous methods to at least <0.1 10 5 which should be possible in the next few years. Future instrumentations on ELTs in the optical and/or ALMA, EVLA and SKA pathfinders in the radio will undoutedly boost this field by allowing to reach much better signal-to-noise ratios at higher spectral resolution and to perform measurements on molecules in the ISM of high redshift galaxiItem Diffuse molecular gas at high redshift: Detection of CO molecules and the 2175 A* dust feature at z=1.64(2009-06-01) Noterdaeme, P.; Ledoux, C.; Srianand, R.; et al.We present the detection of carbon monoxide molecules (CO) at z = 1.6408 towards the quasar SDSS J160457.50+220300.5 using the Very Large Telescope Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph. CO absorption is detected in at least two components in the first six A-X bands and one d-X(5-0) inter-band system. This is the second detection of this kind along a quasar line of sight. The CO absorption profiles are well modelled assuming a rotational excitation of CO in the range 6 < Tex < 16 K, which is consistent with or higher than the temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation at this redshift. We derive a total CO column density of N(CO) = 4 × 1014 cm−2 . The measured column densities of S i, Mg i, Zn ii, Fe ii and Si ii indicate a dust depletion pattern typical of cold gas in the Galactic disc. The background quasar spectrum is significantly reddened (u−K ∼ 4.5 mag) and presents a pronounced 2175 Å dust absorption feature at the redshift of the CO absorber. Using a control sample of ∼500 quasars we find the chance probability for this feature to be spurious is ∼0.3%. We show that the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the quasar is well fitted with a QSO composite spectrum reddened with a Large Magellanic Cloud supershell extinction law at the redshift of the absorber. It is noticeable that this quasar is absent from the colour-selected SDSS quasar sample. This demonstrates our current view of the Universe may be biased against dusty sightlines. These direct observations of carbonaceous molecules and dust open up the possibility of studying physical coItem Diffuse molecular gas at high redshift: Detection of CO molecules and the 2175 A* dust feature at z=1.64(2009-06-01) Noterdaeme, P.; Ledoux, C.; Srianand, R.We present the detection of carbon monoxide molecules (CO) at z = 1.6408 towards the quasar SDSS J160457.50+220300.5 using the Very Large Telescope Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph. CO absorption is detected in at least two components in the first six A-X bands and one d-X(5-0) inter-band system. This is the second detection of this kind along a quasar line of sight. The CO absorption profiles are well modelled assuming a rotational excitation of CO in the range 6 < Tex < 16 K, which is consistent with or higher than the temperature of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation at this redshift. We derive a total CO column density of N(CO) = 4 × 1014 cm−2 . The measured column densities of S i, Mg i, Zn ii, Fe ii and Si ii indicate a dust depletion pattern typical of cold gas in the Galactic disc. The background quasar spectrum is significantly reddened (u−K ∼ 4.5 mag) and presents a pronounced 2175 Å dust absorption feature at the redshift of the CO absorber. Using a control sample of ∼500 quasars we find the chance probability for this feature to be spurious is ∼0.3%. We show that the spectral energy distribution (SED) of the quasar is well fitted with a QSO composite spectrum reddened with a Large Magellanic Cloud supershell extinction law at the redshift of the absorber. It is noticeable that this quasar is absent from the colour-selected SDSS quasar sample. This demonstrates our current view of the Universe may be biased against dusty sightlines. These direct observations of carbonaceous molecules and dust open up the possibility of studying physical conditions and chemistry of diffuse molecular gas in high redshift galaxies.Item Models of high redshift luminosity functions and galactic outflows: The dependence on halo mass function(2009-02-01) Samui, Saumyadip; Subramanian, Kandaswamy; Srianand, R.The form of the halo mass function is a basic ingredient in any semi-analytical galaxy formation model. We study the existing forms of the mass functions in the literature and compare their predictions for semi-analytical galaxy formation models. Two methods are used in the literature to compute the net formation rate of halos, one by simply taking the derivative of the halo mass function and the other using the prescription due to Sasaki (1994). For the historically used Press-Schechter (PS) mass function, we compare various model predictions, using these two methods. However, as the Sasaki formalism cannot be easily generalized for other mass functions, we use the derivative while comparing model predictions of di erent mass functions. We show that the reionization history and UV luminosity function of Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) predicted by the PS mass function di ers from those using any other existing mass function, like Sheth-Tormen (ST) mass func- tion. In particular the reionization e ciency of molecular cooled halos has to be substantially reduced when one uses the ST and other mass functions obtained from the simulation instead of the PS mass function. Using 2 - minimization, we nd that the observed UV luminosity functions of LBGs at 3:0 z 7:4 are better reproduced by models using the ST mass function compared to models that use the PS mass function. On the other hand, the volume lling factor of the metals expelled from the galaxies through super- novae driven out ows di ers very little between models with di erent mass functions. It depends on the way we treat merging out ows. We also show that the porosity weighted average quantities related to the out ow are not very sensitive to the di erences in the halo mass functionItem Complete sample of 21-cm absorbers at z ~ 1.3: Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope Survey Using Mg II Systems(2009-04-01) Gupta, N.; Srianand, R.; Petitjean, Patrick; et al.We present the results of a systematic Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) survey of 21-cm absorption in a representative and unbiased sample of 35 strong Mg ii systems in the redshift range: zabs∼1.10−1.45, 33 of which have Wr ≥1˚ A. The survey using ∼400 hrs of telescope time has resulted in 9 new 21-cm detections and stringent 21-cm optical depth upper limits (median 3σ optical depth per 10 kms−1 of 0.017) for the remaining 26 systems. This is by far the largest number of 21-cm detections from any single survey of intervening absorbers. Prior to our survey no intervening 21-cm system was known in the above redshift range and only one system was known in the redshift range 0.7 ≤ z ≤ 1.5. We discuss the relation between the detectability of 21-cm absorption and various properties of UV absorption lines. We show that if Mg ii systems are selected with the following criteria, Mg ii doublet ratio ≤1.3 and Wr(Mg i)/Wr(Mg ii) ≥ 0.3, then a detection rate of 21-cm absorption up to 90% can be achieved. We estimate n21, the number per unit redshift of 21-cm absorbers with Wr(Mg ii) > Wo and integrated optical depth T21 > To and show that n21 decreases with increasing redshift. In particular, for Wo = 1.0 ˚ A and To > 0.3 km s−1, n21 falls by a factor 4 from < z > = 0.5 to < z > = 1.3. The evolution seems to be stronger for stronger Mg ii systems. Using a subsample of systems for which high frequency VLBA images are available, we show that the effect is not related to the structure of the background radio sources and is most probably due to the evolution of the cold neutral medium filling factor in Mg ii systems. We find no correlation between the velocity spread of the 21-cm absorption feature and Wr(Mg ii) at z ∼ 1.3Item 21-cm absorbers at intermediate redshifts(2009-02-01) Gupta, N.; Srianand, R.; Petitjean, Patrick; et al.Damped Lyman-α 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 H2 molecules and fine-structure transitions. Another important way of probing the thermal state of interstellar medium in these systems is by studying the 21-cm absorption in the spectra of background quasars. Here we report the main results of our GMRT survey to search for 21-cm absorption in a representative and unbiased sample of 35 DLA candidates at 1.10≤z≤1.45. Our sample of DLA candidates is drawn from the strong Mg ii systems in SDSS DR5 and has resulted in discovery of 9 new 21-cm absorbers. Prior to our survey only one 21-cm absorber was known in the redshift range: 0.7≤z≤2. This survey has allowed us to investigate the dependence of detectability of 21-cm absorption on the properties of UV absorption lines detected in SDSS spectra and estimate the number per unit redshift of 21-cm absorbers. Our GMRT survey provides a representative sample of systems that can be used in combination with various follow-up observations: (1) for investigating the physical conditions in the absorbing gas using spin temperature (TS) measurements, (2) for investigating the effect of metallicity and dust content on the detectability of 21-cm absorption, (3) for studying the morphology of the absorbing gas and (4) for probing the time evolution of various fundamental constants. Results from the first phase of our survey are presented in Gupta et al. (2007). Detailed description of the entire sample and results from the survey are presented in Gupta et al. (2009).