A Comparison of Absorption and Emission Line Abundances in the Nearby Damped Lyman-alpha Galaxy SBS 1543+593
| dc.creator | Bowen, David V. | |
| dc.creator | Jenkins, Edward B. | |
| dc.creator | Pettini, Max | |
| dc.creator | Tripp, Todd M. | |
| dc.date | 2005-08-31 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T10:27:37Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T10:27:37Z | |
| dc.description | We have used the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) aboard HST to measure a sulfur abundance of [S/H] = -0.41 +/-0.06 in the interstellar medium (ISM) of the nearby damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) absorbing galaxy SBS 1543+593. A direct comparison between this QSO absorption line abundance on the one hand, and abundances measured from HII region emission line diagnostics on the other, yield the same result: the abundance of sulfur in the neutral ISM is in good agreement with that of oxygen measured in an HII region 3 kpc away. Our result contrasts with those of other recent studies which have claimed order-of-magnitude differences between HI (absorption) and HII (emission) region abundances. We also derive a nickel abundance of [Ni/H] < -0.81, some three times less than that of sulfur, and suggest that the depletion is due to dust, although we cannot rule out an over-abundance of alpha-elements as the cause of the lower metallicity. It is possible that our measure of [S/H] is over-estimated if some SII arises in ionized gas; adopting a plausible star formation rate for the galaxy along the line of sight, and a measurement of the CII* 1335.7 absorption line detected from SBS 1543+593, we determine that the metallicity is unlikely to be smaller than we derive by more than 0.25 dex. We estimate that the cooling rate of the cool neutral medium is log [l_c (ergs s^{-1} H atom^{-1})] = -27.0, the same value as that seen in the high redshift DLA population. | |
| dc.description | 31 pages; accepted for publication in the ApJ | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0509002 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0509002 | |
| dc.identifier | Astrophys.J.635:880,2005 | |
| dc.identifier | doi:10.1086/497617 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/177201 | |
| dc.subject | Astrophysics | |
| dc.title | A Comparison of Absorption and Emission Line Abundances in the Nearby Damped Lyman-alpha Galaxy SBS 1543+593 | |
| dc.type | text |