The Environment of Lyman a Absorbers in the Sightline toward 3C273

S. L. Morris; R. J. Weymann; Alan Dressler; P. J. McCarthy; B. A. Smith; R. J. Terrile; R. Gionvanelli; M. Irwin

doi:10.1086/173505

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The Environment of Lyman a Absorbers in the Sightline toward 3C273

S. L. Morris·R. J. Weymann·Alan Dressler·P. J. McCarthy·B. A. Smith·R. J. Terrile·R. Gionvanelli·M. Irwin

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Abstract

We present new ground-based data following up on the HST discovery of low-redshift Lya absorption in the sight-line to the quasar 3C273. Narrow-band filter observations show that there are no H II regions within a 12 kpc radius of the line-of-sight to the quasar, at the velocities of three of the absorbers. Broad-band imaging shows that there are no dwarf galaxies at Virgo distances with absolute magnitude above MB~-13.5 and within a radius of 40 kpc. We present fiber spectroscopy of galaxies within a radius of 1 deg, down to an apparent magnitude of B~19. We show that the absorbers are definitely not distributed at random with respect to the galaxies, but also that the absorber-galaxy correlation function is not as strong as the galaxy-galaxy correlation function on large scales. Our data are consistent with the hypothesis that all galaxies more luminous than 1/10 L* have effective cross-sections (for association with absorbers with Log(NH)>13.0), of between 0.5 and 1 Mpc. We also show a clear case of a Lya absorber which has no galaxy brighter than MB=-18 within a projected distance of 4.8 Mpc, and discuss the possibility that Lya absorbers are destroyed in a rich galaxy environment.

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S. L. Morris, R. J. Weymann, Alan Dressler, P. J. McCarthy, B. A. Smith, R. J. Terrile, R. Gionvanelli, M. Irwin. 1993-07-05. The Environment of Lyman a Absorbers in the Sightline toward 3C273. https://doi.org/10.1086/173505

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