A z = 3 Lyman Alpha Blob Associated with a Damped Lyman Alpha System Proximate to its Background Quasar

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of a bright Lyman alpha blob at z=3 associated with a quasar and a proximate damped Lyman alpha system, analyzing its origin and implications for imaging neutral hydrogen.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed analysis of a z=3 Lyman alpha blob linked to a quasar and discusses its potential for imaging neutral hydrogen in foreground galaxies.

Findings

The Lyman alpha emission is intrinsic to the quasar, not the foreground galaxy.

Fluorescent recombination from the PDLA cannot account for the observed luminosity.

The system can be used to image neutral hydrogen in foreground galaxies.

Abstract

We report on the discovery of a bright Lyman alpha blob associated with the z=3 quasar SDSSJ124020.91+145535.6 which is also coincident with strong damped Lyman alpha absorption from a foreground galaxy (a so-called proximate damped Lyman alpha system; PDLA). The one dimensional spectrum acquired by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) shows a broad Lyman alpha emission line with a FWHM ~ 500 km/s and a luminosity of L_{Lya} = 3.9e43 erg/s superposed on the trough of the PDLA. Mechanisms for powering this large Lyman alpha luminosity are discussed. We argue against emission from HII regions in the PDLA galaxy since this requires an excessive star-formation rate ~ 500 Msun/yr and would correspond to the largest Lyman alpha luminosity ever measured from a damped Lyman alpha system or starburst galaxy. We use a Monte Carlo radiative transfer simulation to investigate the possibility that the line emission is fluorescent recombination radiation from the PDLA galaxy powered by the ionizing flux of the quasar, but find that the predicted Lyman alpha flux is several orders of magnitude lower than observed. We conclude that the Lyman alpha emission is not associated with the PDLA galaxy at all, but instead is intrinsic to the quasar's host and similar to the extended Lyman alpha 'fuzz' which is detected around many AGN. PDLAs are natural coronagraphs that block their background quasar at Lyman alpha, and we discuss how systems similar to SDSSJ124020.91+145535.6 might be used to image the neutral hydrogen in the PDLA galaxy in silhouette against the screen of extended Lyman alpha emission from the background quasar.