A Kinematic Comparison of Strong Mg II Absorbers Along Quasar and GRB Sightlines

Details A Kinematic Comparison of Strong Mg II Absorbers Along Quasar and GRB Sightlines A Kinematic Comparison of Strong Mg II Absorbers Along Quasar and GRB Sightlines

Jan 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21347608j&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #476.08; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.442

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Prompted by the result of Prochter et al. (2006) that dN/dz for MgII absorbers with rest frame equivalent widths EW(2796Å) > 1 Å is four times greater along GRB lines of sight than along quasar lines of sight, we examine the kinematic properties of these absorbers in an attempt to discover the origin of this discrepancy. We analyze 28 absorbers along 81 quasar sightlines and 9 absorbers along 6 GRB afterglow sightlines found in the VLT/UVES (R=45,000) archive, finding that trends in kinematic spread vs. EW(2796Å), kinematic spread vs. redshift, and velocity range vs. redshift are the same for both populations. We also measure the value of the D-index, the ratio of line equivalent width to velocity spread, as discussed in Ellison (2006), and find no distinction between the samples. Although no difference in kinematics is detected between the GRB and the quasar absorbers, we consider the difficulty of differentiating intrinsic quasar absorbers ejected at high velocities from intervening quasar absorbers. Intrinsic quasar absorption line systems are much denser than intervening absorbers and may be ejected at velocities of up to 50,000 km/s, yet they are not always distinguishable from intervening systems via covering factor analysis; the same could be true of intrinsic GRB absorption line systems. We conclude that an intrinsic origin of the absorber excess toward GRBs cannot be ruled out despite the similarities to the intervening quasar absorbers.

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