Wednesday, February 15, 2012

1202.3012 (R. F. Carswell et al.)

The kinetic temperature in a damped Lyman-alpha absorption system in Q2206-199 - an example of the warm neutral medium    [PDF]

R. F. Carswell, G. D. Becker, R. A. Jorgenson, M. T. Murphy, A. M. Wolfe
By comparing the widths of absorption lines from OI, SiII and FeII in the redshift z=2.076 single-component damped Lyman alpha absorption system in the spectrum of Q2206-199 we establish that these absorption lines arise in Warm Neutral Medium gas at ~12000 +/- 3000K. This is consistent with thermal equilibrium model estimates of ~ 8000K for the Warm Neutral Medium in galaxies, but not with the presence of a significant cold component. It is also consistent with, but not required by, the absence of CII* fine structure absorption in this system. Some possible implications concerning abundance estimates in narrow-line WNM absorbers are discussed.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.3012

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