Detecting PAHs in high-z galaxies in proxy: Modelling physical conditions in an extremely strong damped Lyman-alpha absorber towards QSO SDSS J1143+1420 at z=2.323

TL;DR

This study uses CLOUDY simulations to indirectly detect and estimate the abundance of PAHs in a high-redshift damped Lyman-alpha absorber, providing insights into dust and molecular content in early galaxies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of CLOUDY modelling to infer PAH presence in high-z galaxies where direct IR detection is lacking.

Findings

PAHs are indirectly detected with an abundance of ~10^-7.

Low 2175 Å bump strength indicates low PAH abundance.

CLOUDY modelling effectively probes dust and molecular conditions in high-z absorbers.

Abstract

We explore indirect methods to detect Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in gas-rich, absorption-selected galaxies at high redshift. We look at the optical VLT/X-shooter observations of an intervening, extremely strong damped Lyman-alpha absorber (or ESDLA, with log(N(HI))>~21.7)) towards QSO SDSS J1143+1420 at redshift, z(ESDLA)=2.323. Literature studies have shown that this ESDLA contains signatures of dust and diffuse molecular hydrogen and it was specifically chosen for our study due to its close spatial proximity (impact parameter, rho=0.6+/-0.3 kpc) with its associated galaxy. There is no direct detection of PAHs emission in the limited observations of infrared(IR)-spectra along this sight-line. Hence, we use CLOUDY numerical simulation modelling to indirectly probe the presence of PAH in the ESDLA. We note that PAHs need to be included in the models to reproduce the observed column densities of warm H2 and CI. Thus, we infer the presence of PAHs indirectly in our ESDLA, with an abundance of PAH/H = 10^(-7.046). We also measure a low 2175 A bump strength (E(bump)~0.03-0.19 mag) relative to star-forming galaxies by modelling extinction of QSO spectra by dust at the absorber rest-frame. This is consistent with the low PAH abundance obtained indirectly using CLOUDY modelling. Our study highlights the usage of CLOUDY modelling to indirectly detect PAH in high-redshift gas-rich absorption-selected galaxies.