Extended Lyα emission around quasars with eclipsing damped Lyα systems

Abstract

We present spectroscopic observations of six high redshift (z(em) > 2) quasars, which have been selected for their Lyman alpha (Ly alpha) emission region being only partially covered by a strong proximate (z(abs) similar to z(em)) coronagraphic damped Ly alpha system (DLA). We detected spatially extended Ly alpha emission envelopes surrounding these six quasars, with projected spatial extent in the range 26 <= d(Ly alpha) <= 51 kpc. No correlation is found between the quasar ionizing luminosity and the Ly alpha luminosity of their extended envelopes. This could be related to the limited covering factor of the extended gas and/or due to the AGN being obscured in other directions than towards the observer. Indeed, we find a strong correlation between the luminosity of the envelope and its spatial extent, which suggests that the envelopes are probably ionized by the AGN. The metallicity of the coronagraphic DLAs is low and varies in the range -1.75 < [Si/H] < -0.63. Highly ionized gas is observed to be associated with most of these DLAs, probably indicating ionization by the central AGN. One of these DLAs has the highest Al-III/Si-II ratio ever reported for any intervening and/ or proximate DLA. Most of these DLAs are redshifted with respect to the quasar, implying that they might represent infalling gas probably accreted on to the quasar host galaxies through filaments.