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V. P. Kulkarni (Univ. of South Carolina), C. Péroux (ESO), J. Meiring (Univ. of South Carolina), R. Ferlet (Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris), P. Khare (Utkal Univ.), J. T. Lauroesch (Northwestern Univ.), G. Vladilo (Osservatorio di Trieste), D. G. York (Univ. of Chicago)
We present high-resolution VLT UVES observations of a sub-damped Lyman-alpha (sub-DLA) system at zabs= 0.7 with super-solar metallicity toward an SDSS quasar. This is the highest metallicity intervening (zabs << zem) quasar absorber currently known, and is only the second super-solar absorber known to date. We derive a Zn abundance of +0.6 dex, while Fe, Cr, Mn, and Ti have abundances of -0.4 to -0.6 dex, indicating that this metal-rich absorber is also dusty. Observations and photoionization models using the CLOUDY software confirm that the gas in this sub-DLA is predominantly neutral. Fe/Zn and Ti/Zn vary among the main velocity components by factors of ~3 and ~35, respectively, indicating non-uniform dust depletion. Mn/Fe is super-solar in almost all components, and varies by a factor of ~3 among the dominant components.
VPK and JM gratefully acknowledge support from the U.S. National Science Foundation grant AST-0206197 to University of South Carolina.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #4
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.