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# 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑟𝑎 ACIS-S Observations of Three Quasars with Low-Redshift Damped Ly𝛼 Absorption: Constraints on the Cosmic Neutral-Gas-Phase Metallicity at Redshift 𝑧≈0.4Based on data obtained with the NASA Chandra X-Ray Observatory.

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Observations of the chemical evolution of the Universe provide independent constraints on the processes which govern cosmic nucleosynthesis and galaxy formation. This includes studies of the chemical makeup of the Universe’s gaseous and stellar components with increasing redshift. With regard to the gaseous structures, it is widely recognized that intervening damped Ly$`\alpha `$ (DLA) absorption-line systems in quasar spectra are important probes of galaxy formation. They are not only the highest neutral hydrogen column density systems, with $`N_{HI}2\times 10^{20}`$ atoms cm-2, but consideration of them alone can be used to trace nearly all of the neutral gas in the Universe out to at least redshift $`z=3.5`$. The work on DLA systems has included studies of their cosmological incidence, mass density, and column density distribution (e.g., see Rao & Turnshek 2000, hereafter RT2000, and references therein), the types and impact parameters of the luminous galaxies associated with them (e.g., Le Brun et al. 1997, Turnshek et al. 2001, Nestor et al. 2002, Turnshek, Rao, & Nestor 2002, Rao et al. 2003) and their kinematic properties along the sight-lines to the background quasars (e.g., Prochaska & Wolfe 1999). Of special interest to the work presented here, Pettini and collaborators (Pettini et al. 1999 and references therein) have pioneered the method of using DLAs to measure the cosmic neutral-gas-phase metallicity of the Universe. However, it has not been possible to extend this work significantly below $`z0.6`$ primarily due to the fact that, at these redshifts, the measurements must be done from space. This is because there are no suitable unsaturated heavy-element resonance lines in the optical which can be used to reliably measure metallicities in high-$`N_{HI}`$ systems. For example, ZnII$`\lambda \lambda `$2026,2062, which is a good tracer of the neutral gas and is relatively unaffected by depletion onto dust grains, is only visible in optical spectra at redshifts $`z>0.6`$; and while CaII$`\lambda \lambda `$3934,3969 and NaI$`\lambda \lambda `$5891,5897 are visible in optical spectra, they are affected by complicated depletion processes and possible saturation effects. Moreover, although many measurements at $`z=0`$ can be obtained from observations within the Galaxy, these measurements may not be representative of the Universe as a whole. Therefore, given that neutral-gas-phase metallicities have been measured for DLA systems at high redshifts, it would seem that the more appropriate way to empirically establish the mean metallicity of the Universe at low redshift is to measure the asymptotic trend (and eventually the spread) in metallicity as one probes from high redshifts to low redshifts.

Here we report attempts to use Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO) ACIS-S observations of three quasars to measure the amount of photoelectric absorption due to metals in their spectra arising from three foreground low-redshift DLA systems. The three DLA systems studied here have $`0.313z_{abs}0.524`$; they are the largest HI gas columns presently known at low redshifts (RT2000), with $`3\times 10^{21}N_{HI}5\times 10^{21}`$ atoms cm-2 as inferred from their DLA or 21 cm absorption lines. Since the K shell ionization edge of oxygen occurs at a rest frame energy of 0.53 keV and oxygen has relatively high absorptivity in comparison to the other heavy elements (Wilms, Allen, & McCray 2000), the amount of photoelectric absorption in the observed 0.3-8 keV energy range, where CXO ACIS-S is the most sensitive, is primarily an indicator of a DLA system’s oxygen abundance. Furthermore, because the three systems are such high-$`N_{HI}`$ systems and the sum of their column densities are similar to those probed at higher redshifts, definitive measurements of the metal abundances in them would provide a robust determination of the cosmic neutral-gas-phase metallicity at $`z0.4`$. This is an important constraint on the process of cosmic chemical evolution; specifically, it would be a measurement of the metallicity of the neutral gas which is an important constituent of matter in the cyclic process of galaxy formation (e.g., collapse of gas to form large neutral gas structures, followed by the formation of molecular clouds and star formation, eventually leading to metal enrichment of the environment, and so on $``$ but see Allen 2002 for a different perspective).

In principle, the use of photoelectric absorption to measure DLA metallicities has advantages. First, since atoms tied up in all states (e.g., including ionized species, molecules, and grains) contribute to photoelectric absorption, it can provide a more direct measurement of the total metallicity. Ionization corrections and depletion onto grains need not be considered. Second, due to shielding below the hydrogen Lyman limit in the absorber rest frame, the ionized hydrogen gas fraction is expected to be minimal relative to the total column, and searches for molecular hydrogen in DLA systems usually yield null results or very low molecular hydrogen fractions (e.g., Levshakov et al. 2002, Petitjean et al. 2002, and references therein). Thus, the HI column densities inferred from the DLA or 21 cm absorption lines of these systems are indicative of the systems’ total column densities. One would therefore expect x-ray measurements of the DLA metallicities to be straightforward, in the sense that it would not be necessary to make corrections that depend on physical conditions. However, the main limitation of our CXO ACIS-S observations is that they are insufficient to readily resolve the oxygen k-shell ionization edge at a particular redshift. Instead, any photoelectric absorption signature is due to the cumulative effect of all the metals which may be present in objects at all intervening redshifts, and it is not possible to definitively determine the abundance of any individual element, or even isolate the amount of absorption due to metals at any particular redshift.

Our main aim here is to use CXO ACIS-S observations with reasonable assumptions to derive a preliminary measurement of the mean cosmic neutral-gas-phase metallicity of the Universe at redshift $`z0.4`$. We consider the measurement preliminary for three reasons. First, since absorption edges are not specifically identified, any detected absorption could arise from gas at some other redshift. However, since the probability of encountering a second strong x-ray absorber at $`z>0`$ along any of these sight-lines is small, we will simply assume that any detected absorption originates at the DLA redshifts. If this were not true, our measurements would then represent upper limits on the DLA systems’ metallicities. Second, it is possible that the absorbers we have studied here, while sampling the largest HI columns known at low redshift, are biased against including more chemically evolved systems which contain significant dust, thereby dimming background quasars and eliminating them from current samples that are being studied. This selection bias, if present, could cause us to underestimate the mean cosmic neutral-gas-phase metallicity at $`z0.4`$. Third, CXO ACIS-S calibrations may change, especially at energies $`E<0.4`$ keV. Nevertheless, we believe that the results reported here are valuable because they will, at the very least, provide some insight on attacking this problem in the future.

The organization of this paper is as follows. In §2 we present the CXO ACIS-S quasar observations along the sight-lines through three low-redshift DLA absorbers, and the analyses and assumptions which lead to DLA metallicity determinations. In §3 we combine our results with the DLA metallicity measurements of Pettini et al. (1999) at $`z>0.6`$; this provides a preliminary estimate of the evolution of the column-density-weighted cosmic neutral-gas-phase metallicity at $`z<3.5`$. A discussion of the limitations of these results and their implications is presented in §4.

## 2 Observations, Analyses, and Neutral-Gas-Phase Metallicity Determinations

Observations of the three quasars were made with ACIS-S CCD #7 on CXO (see cxc.harvard.edu). The journal of observations and other details are given in Table 1. First, we emphasize that an essential data processing step is to take into account the known decay of the ACIS quantum efficiency with time.111See cxc.harvard.edu/cal/Links/Acis/acis/Cal\_prods/qeDeg/index.html. Without this step, the derived metallicities for two of the DLA absorbers would have been about 0.3 dex higher. The final processing of each observation was performed using the XAssist software (Ptak 2001 and see www.xassist.org), which is a software package that assists in x-ray data reprocessing, initial source detection, and analysis. The data reductions were performed using CIAO 2.2 and the data were reprocessed using CALDB 2.9. Briefly, XAssist performs the basic data reduction steps recommended by the Chandra X-Ray Center (CXC) “threads.” We also implemented an optional step which removed the 0.5 pixel position randomization. Sources were detected using the wavdetect software, which detects sources using a wavelet procedure, and the background light curves were examined, which permitted removal of data taken during times of background flaring. Images of detected sources were fitted with elliptical Gaussian models in order to determine their spatial extent. The spectra were then binned to 20 counts per channel so that the $`\chi ^2`$ statistic could be used to examine the goodness of each spectrum fit.

The DLA absorption redshifts and HI column densities for the three systems are included in Table 1. The HI column densities for the AO 0235+164 and PKS 1127$``$145 DLAs were derived by fitting Voigt damping profiles to the Ly$`\alpha `$ absorption lines in their HST UV spectra (RT2000). Unfortunately, the HST UV spectrum of S4 0248+430 has very low signal-to-noise ratio, so the HI column density of this system had to be derived from the its 21 cm absorption profile (Lane & Briggs 2001) for an assumed spin temperature of 700 K. Adopting $`T_s=700`$ K for this system is consistent with the measured spin temperatures of other DLA absorbers (Carilli et al. 1996; Lane et al. 1998).

Absorption of these quasars’ x-ray spectra is due to hydrogen, helium, and metals in the Milky Way Galaxy’s ISM and in other intervening systems. To derive DLA metallicities we used the publicly-available XSPEC software package (Arnaud 1996 and see $`xspec.gsfc.nasa.gov`$), which is often used for analysis of x-ray spectra. We have limited our analysis to the $`0.4<E<8`$ keV region due to calibration uncertainties outside this range, especially below 0.4 keV. We proceeded as follows. We assumed that a power-law with index $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ fitted to each quasar’s spectrum at energies $`2<E<8`$ keV could be extrapolated to lower energies to provide a reliable indication of the unabsorbed quasar x-ray spectrum. This is a reasonable assumption, since in no case is the absorbing column large enough to affect the continuum at $`E>2`$ keV. Thus, the $`2<E<8`$ keV range fixes both the slope and normalization of the x-ray spectrum. Our tests using other quasars with similar emission redshifts in the CXO archives, which are not in environments where absorption at the emission redshift may be prevalent and which have no known DLA absorption, show that such extrapolations are generally consistent with quasar spectra in the $`0.4<E<2`$ keV range after accounting for Galactic absorption. For the three quasars considered here, the best-fit derived $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$s over this energy range are reported in Table 1. We assumed that the most accurate HI column densities of Galactic ISM gas along the sight-lines to the three quasars are those derived from the 21 cm all-sky emission map of Hartmann & Burton (1997). These Galactic HI column densities are specified in Table 1. However, it should be noted that the 0.5° $`\times `$ 0.5° angular resolution of the HI map is much larger than the pencil beam of a quasar line of sight. Therefore, the HI column density derived from a 21 cm emission observation may only be approximate since the measured value is an average over the size of the beam. We also assumed that the metallicity of the Galactic gas is given by the ISM metallicity model of Wilms et al. (2000). Wilms et al. present a good justification for the metallicities they adopt. The oxygen abundance in their model is 0.58 Z, while the metallicities of nitrogen and carbon are 0.76 Z and 0.60 Z, respectively. The Wilms et al. ISM metallicity model is one of the options incorporated into the XSPEC software package. At the same time, in order to assess how our final results on DLA metallicities depend on Galactic-gas metallicity, we also derived DLA metallicities under the assumptions of zero and solar Galactic-gas metallicity, where the solar metallicity is that specified by Feldman (1992). We note that recent investigations generally indicate that the Galactic-gas metallicity is demonstrably sub-solar, i.e., $`0.65`$ Z (e.g., Sembach et al. 1995, Roth & Blades 1995, and Meyer, Jura, & Cardelli 1998). For one Galactic sight-line, Meyer et al. (1994) reported a Galactic-gas metallicity of 0.4 Z.

For the assumptions given above, and for two different cases of relative DLA metal abundances, we then used XSPEC to determine the best-fit overall metallicities for the three DLA systems. For one case we assumed that the relative DLA metal abundances had solar ratios as specified by Feldman (1992), and for the other case we assumed that the $`\alpha `$-group element relative abundances (specifically O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, Ar, and Ca) were enhanced by a factor of 2.5 relative to the Feldman (1992) solar metal ratios. Consideration of the enhanced $`\alpha `$-group element case seems appropriate since the x-ray measurements should be most affected by the oxygen abundance, whereas at higher redshift the most reliable measurements of the overall DLA metallicity come from studies of zinc which tracks iron, but show little or no evidence for depletion onto grains. The need to consider the possible effects of $`\alpha `$-group abundance enhancements is clearly evident from studies of a variety of stellar populations (e.g., see Prochaska et al. 2000 and references therein). The degree of $`\alpha `$-group metals enhancement generally depends on the overall metallicity, with \[O/Fe\]$`=0.4`$\[Fe/H\] being close to the general trend. For example, \[Fe/H\]$`=1`$ (i.e., a metallicity of 0.1 Z) is indicative of an enhancement of $`\alpha `$-group metals by a factor of 2.5 times solar. Since the higher-redshift DLA measurements of Pettini et al. (1999) indicate that zinc metallicities are typically $`0.1`$ Z, considering a case where $`\alpha `$-group element abundances are enhanced by a factor of 2.5 seems appropriate.

The derived overall DLA metallicities and errors are reported in Table 2 for the six combinations of assumptions about Galactic-gas metal ratios (three different cases) and DLA-gas metal ratios (two different cases) which were outlined above. Also, because the error source was quite different, the error in photon index was not propagated to arrive at the quoted errors; but this is an insignificant component to the error budget. This is especially true given the various interpretive assumptions we have made (i.e., the six combinations of assumptions mentioned above plus assumptions put forth in §1). Uncertainties in the Galactic and DLA HI column densities have also not been propogated, but again, these contributions to the error budget are small relative to the interpretive assumptions. The $`\chi ^2`$ statistic per number of degrees of freedom is listed in Table 2 for each fit. This fit refers to the entire $`0.4<E<8`$ keV range. These statistics show all of the fits to be fairly reasonable, so this is an indication that x-ray observations at such low resolution are unable to distinguish between the six cases. Because of the overwhelming evidence that the Galactic-gas ISM metallicity is likely to be close to that specified by Wilms et al. (2000), we adopt these results in the remainder of the paper.

The left and right panels of Figures $`13`$ show the effect of DLA-gas absorption on the quasar x-ray spectrum. Both panels include a power-law fit in the $`28`$ keV range that is extrapolated to 0.4 keV to obtain the unabsorbed quasar x-ray spectrum and absorption by Galactic gas according to the Wilms et al. (2000) ISM metallicity model. The right panel shows the best-fit model with DLA-gas absorption also included. The results indicate that, for the AO 0235+164 and S4 0248+430 absorbers, the overall DLA metallicities may be substantial, i.e., $`>0.1`$ Z, and metallicities only a factor of $`2`$ less than Galactic ISM values cannot be ruled out. In §4.1.2 we do, however, discuss the possibility that another significant absorber may be present in the S4 0248+430 spectrum. As for the PKS 1127$``$145 DLA absorber, for our adopted assumptions we find that there is no evidence for absorption due to metals at the DLA redshift. In fact, our analysis under-predicts the x-ray flux in the $`0.4<E<2`$ keV region even when the DLA gas metallicity is zero. This can be seen by inspecting the right panel of Figure 3, where the x-ray spectrum is seen to lie slightly above the model fit which has zero DLA metallicity. This may indicate a problem with our assumptions in the PKS 1127$``$145 analysis, which is further discussed in §4.1.3.

We note that Bechtold et al. (2001) also recently performed an XSPEC analysis to study the metallicity of the DLA absorber in PKS 1127$``$145 (see both our Figure 3 and Bechtold et al.’s Figure 3). However, pile up, which is a problem with the data (G. Chartas, private communication), was not considered in their analysis. We attempted to model and remove this effect. While the effects of pile up can be mitigated by going off axis, one would have needed to be $`>5`$ arcmin off axis to begin to obtain a significant reduction in pile up (G. Chartas, private communication).

In the Bechtold et al. analysis, some emphasis was placed on exploring the parameter spaces of x-ray spectrum fits, including the possibility of absorption at other redshifts. Ignoring the fact that pile up was not considered in their analysis, their work indicated that, indeed, the most plausible redshift for x-ray absorption was the DLA redshift ($`z_{abs}=0.313`$). For Galactic absorption along the PKS 1127$``$145 sight-line they used the observations of Murphy et al. (1996) and adopted an HI column density of $`3.8\times 10^{20}`$ atoms cm-2, which is about 16% larger than what we used based on the observations of Hartmann & Burton (1997). The metallicity they adopted for the Galactic ISM gas was presumably solar. However, when making fits to any DLA x-ray absorption, they chose to fix the DLA gas metallicity to be either zero (primordial) or solar (processed), and then they determined best-fit $`N_{HI}`$ values for absorption of the x-ray spectrum. They found that solar metallicity gas with $`N_{HI}=1.2\times 10^{21}`$ atoms cm-2 provided the best fit to the DLA-absorbed x-ray spectrum. Since this is 23% of the HI column indicated by the fit to the DLA line in the HST UV spectrum (RT2000), they inferred a metallicity of 0.23 Z for the PKS 1127$`145`$ DLA absorber. However, they also showed that zero metallicity DLA gas at $`z_{abs}=0.313`$ with $`N_{HI}=3.3\times 10^{21}`$ atoms cm-2 can adequately absorb and explain the x-ray spectrum. But in this case the required $`N_{HI}`$ value is still only 63% of the HI column derived from the HST spectrum. This conclusion is implausible since (as Bechtold et al. also note) metal absorption lines are observed in the quasar spectrum at the DLA redshift and the HI column density is greater than $`N_{HI}=3.3\times 10^{21}`$ atoms cm-2. It would then follow that DLA gas with the known column density, i.e., $`N_{HI}=5.1\times 10^{21}`$ atoms cm-2, cannot have a metallicity of 23% solar and still be consistent with the x-ray spectrum.

The appropriate way to proceed, which is the approach we took in our analysis, is to run the XSPEC software by fixing the DLA HI column density (since it is known) while allowing the overall DLA absorber metallicity to be a free parameter. This takes advantage of the fact that fitting a Voigt profile to the UV DLA absorption line provides a metallicity-independent method of determining the HI column density.

## 3 Column-Density-Weighted Cosmic Neutral-Gas-Phase Metallicity

The integrated HI column densities of 42 high-redshift DLA systems in five arbitrary redshift bins (e.g., see Pettini et al. 1999) is comparable to the integrated HI column density of the three systems we have studied here at $`z0.4`$. This is illustrated in Figure 4. The distinguishing difference of the summed HI column densities illustrated in Figure 4 is that the lowest redshift bin (this work) pertains to metallicity measurements at x-ray energies, while the higher redshift bins pertain to metallicity measurements made at UV/optical wavelengths. From this figure it is clear that if metallicity determinations of sufficient accuracy existed for the three individual low-redshift DLA systems studied here, a very interesting result could be inferred on the mean column-density-weighted cosmic neutral-gas-phase metallicity at $`z0.4`$. For this work, we adopt a definition analogous to the one used by Pettini et al. (1999) to determine the mean column-density-weighted metallicity of Zn. In the absence of an effect which would bias our sample (see §1), such a measurement would represent the actual cosmic neutral-gas-phase metallicity. Moreover, such a determination would be robust in the sense that future metallicity measurements of many lower-$`N_{HI}`$ systems would only slightly modify the result because of their low weight.

For the assumption of Galactic ISM gas with the metallicity specified by Wilms et al. (2001) we have determined the following from the XSPEC fits. If DLA gas has solar ratio metals, the column-density-weighted neutral gas-phase metallicity at $`z0.4`$ is $`0.19\pm 0.11`$ $`Z_{}`$. Alternatively, if the DLA gas has $`\alpha `$-group metals which are enhanced by a factor of 2.5 over solar ratios, we find a metallicity of $`0.10\pm 0.06`$ $`Z_{}`$ for the non-enhanced elements (e.g. Zn). In addition, if one were to take the view that the PKS 1127$``$145 DLA metallicity results should be excluded from this analysis (see §2 and §4.1.3), the results become $`0.31\pm 0.07`$ $`Z_{}`$ (for solar ratio metals) and $`0.15\pm 0.04`$ $`Z_{}`$ (for non-enhanced metals mixed with enhanced $`\alpha `$-group metals).

As discussed earlier, depletion onto grains is not a concern for x-ray derived metallicities. Thus, it is possible to make a comparison between the x-ray derived low-redshift DLA metallicity results and those derived from the ZnII lines in high-redshift DLAs. This is because Zn is not significantly depleted onto grains and the columns of Zn not in the singly-ionized state are expected to be relatively small, especially for the large HI column densities involved here (e.g. Vladilo et al. 2001). Since we quote metallicities for the non-enhanced elements in both cases in the preceding paragraph, the results can be directly compared to the DLA \[Zn/H\] metallicities considered by Pettini et al. (1999) at high redshift. These comparisons are made in Figure 5 (all three DLA absorbers) and Figure 6 (excluding the PKS 1127$``$145 DLA absorber). The effect of using a Galactic-gas metallicity other than the ISM values of Wilms et al. (2001) can be judged from the range of results presented in Table 2.

Figures 5 and 6 show that the x-ray observations cannot be used to rule out a significant increase in the column-density-weighted neutral gas phase metallicity with decreasing redshift by $`z0.4`$. However, given the various assumptions we have made, and the formal errors in our metallicity determinations for these assumptions, the results should also not be interpreted as evidence for an increase in metallicity with decreasing redshift.

## 4 Discussion

### 4.1 Comments on Individual DLA Systems

Of course, analysis of the Chandra data is not limited to results on DLA absorption in these quasars. Additional analysis on the fields containing these quasars can be found in the XAssist output (see www.xassist.org). With regard to individual DLA systems, various details should be noted here for each of the objects studied. These are discussed below.

#### 4.1.1 AO 0235+164 ($`z_{abs}=0.524`$)

AO 0235+164 is a well-known object that has properties of so-called optically violent variables (OVVs). It has been described as a blazar, a BL Lac object, and a high-polarization QSO (e.g., see Burbidge et al. 1996 and references therein). The high column density absorption system at $`z_{abs}=0.524`$ was first discovered in redshifted 21 cm absorption by Roberts et al. (1976). Subsequently, Wolfe et al. (1982) showed the 21 cm absorption to be variable and Briggs (1983) proposed a kinematic model for the absorption.

Cohen et al. (1999) used their HST UV spectrum of AO 0235+164 to study the DLA line associated with the 21 cm absorption and deduce the HI column density and other properties of the absorber. They found $`N_{HI}=5\times 10^{21}`$ atoms cm-2; they also reported evidence for dust at the absorption redshift, but at a significantly lower level than what would be expected for a Galactic line-of-sight at similar HI column density. Our independent analysis of the HST UV spectrum of AO 0235+164 yielded $`N_{HI}=4.5\times 10^{21}`$ atoms cm-2 for the DLA absorber, which is the value adopted in our analysis (Tables 1 and 2).

Using data taken with the Einstein Observatory Imaging Proportional Counter in August 1980, Madejski (1994) performed an analysis which showed the metallicity of the DLA absorber to be $`2\pm 1`$ Z for the assumptions he made. This is a higher metallicity than what we infer from the superior $`Chandra`$ data.

Finally, HST imaging and follow-up spectroscopy of the field by Burbidge et al. (1996) has led to a rather surprising serendipitous discovery about the environment surrounding the AO 0235+164 DLA absorber. There are two optical identifications of objects (called “A1” and “A”) at redshift $`z0.524`$ that lie within 2 arcsec of the AO 0235+164 sight-line. The nearer object, A1, is separated by 1.08 arcsec from the sight-line and has a WFPC2 instrumental magnitude of m$`{}_{F702W}{}^{}=21.3`$. It is a resolved emission-line galaxy, appearing as a structure which is elongated 2 arcsec, with a brighter inner region that has an extent of 0.5 arcsec. Object A is separated by 1.96 arcsec from the sight-line and has m$`{}_{F702W}{}^{}=20.6`$. It appears as an unresolved point source surrounded by faint nebulosity. Its spectrum exhibits broad emission lines as well as broad absorption lines (BALs), which have a maximum outflow velocity ($`6000`$ km s-1); this maximum velocity is on the low side of what is normally observed in BAL QSOs. However, Burbidge et al. (1996) note that, based on object A’s magnitude and the surrounding faint nebulosity, it might best be classified as a Seyfert 1 AGN, in which case the outflow velocities are rather large in comparison to those sometimes seen in AGN. In any case, the presence of both an emission-line galaxy (object A1) and a BAL QSO/AGN (object A) in the vicinity of the AO 0235+164 DLA absorber is suggestive of a chemically-evolved environment.

#### 4.1.2 S4 0248+430 ($`z_{abs}=0.394`$)

The identification of the DLA absorber in S4 0248+430 is based on 21 cm absorption (Lane & Briggs 2001). As such, a DLA absorption line was not used to derive its HI column density. Instead, a reasonable value of the spin temperature was assumed for the HI column density derivation (§2). The fact that the continuum was too faint to observe the DLA line in S4 0248+430’s HST UV spectrum (RT2000) may be an indication that significant dust is present along the sight-line.

This sight-line also represents a case where significant metal-line absorption from objects other than the DLA system are clearly present. However, it is unclear if the column densities of these other absorption systems are sufficient to give rise to x-ray absorption. In particular, in addition to the DLA system at $`z_{abs}=0.394`$, Womble et al. (1990) identify two other distinct low-ionization systems at $`z_{abs}=0.052`$ and $`z_{abs}=0.452`$. The rest equivalent widths of the MgII lines at $`z_{abs}=0.452`$ (Womble et al. 1990) are small enough that this system is not likely to be in the DLA regime (RT2000). Indeed, our HST spectrum of the Ly$`\alpha `$ line at $`z_{abs}=0.452`$ (RT2000) indicates that this system is not damped. Thus, we conclude that the $`z_{abs}=0.452`$ does not give rise to any appreciable x-ray absorption. However, as discussed below, x-ray absorption from the $`z_{abs}=0.052`$ is a possibility.

The system at $`z_{abs}=0.052`$ is likely associated with a luminous spiral galaxy at redshift $`z=0.052`$ which is offset 14.7 arcsec from the sight-line to S4 0248+430 (Womble et al. 1990; Sargent and Steidel 1990). At such low redshift, light from this extended luminous galaxy overlaps and contaminates the image of the background quasar. Both Womble et al. (1990) and Sargent & Steidel (1990) detected CaII and NaI absorption at this redshift in the quasar’s spectrum. The high-resolution spectrum of Womble et al. shows two primary absorption components at this redshift. Their curve-of-growth analysis indicates that the total Ca+ column density of both components is $`5.3\times 10^{13}`$ atoms cm-2. If there were no calcium depletion onto grains and this were indicative of a neutral gas column with solar abundances, the total HI column density would be $`2.3\times 10^{19}`$ atoms cm-2, which would not be large enough to cause significant x-ray absorption. However, the curve-of-growth error analysis of Womble et al. admits the possibility that the Ca+ column density is significantly higher. Moreover, calcium is easily depleted onto grains and, as discussed above, there is evidence for dust reddening along this sight-line. Thus, we cannot rule out the possibility that some of the x-ray absorption seen in the S4 0248+430 spectrum comes from this system.

#### 4.1.3 PKS 1127$``$145 ($`z_{abs}=0.313`$)

The properties of the various emission-line galaxies near redshift $`z=0.313`$ along the sight-line towards PKS 1127$``$145 are described by Lane et al. (1998), Nestor et al. (2002), and Rao et al. (2003). Most notably, there is a large patchy/irregular low surface brightness structure which is very extended in the north-south direction and $`3.5`$ arcsec to the west of the sight-line.

As discussed in §2, Bechtold et al. (2001) originally studied the possibility of x-ray absorption from this DLA system. This same group has also made a detailed study of the Chandra x-ray images of the field (Siemiginowska et al. 2002). Recall that the main problem we encountered in our analysis of x-ray absorption from this DLA absorber (§2) was that, even with zero metallicity DLA gas, after Galactic absorption was taken into account the DLA absorption column required to explain the x-ray spectrum at energies below 2 keV was less than what was measured in the RT2000 HST UV spectrum. This suggests that extrapolation of the power-law fit to the $`28`$ keV region to lower energies under-predicts the x-ray flux in the $`0.42`$ keV region, indicating that there may be, for example, a significant soft x-ray energy excess in PKS 1127$``$145. Siemiginowska et al. (2002) present some evidence for this; however, the flux from an x-ray jet identified by Siemiginowska et al. in the x-ray image appears to be negligible. In any case, estimating the metallicity of this object is problematic. We can only conclude that in this DLA system there is presently no evidence for relatively high metallicity, unlike the evidence in the other two DLA absorbers.

### 4.2 Limitations of the Results and Implications

The details of the objects studied (§4.1) and the spectral resolution of the CXO ACIS-S observations present limitations to the direct detection of metals at the DLA redshifts. Thus, our results and interpretation depend on the reliability of the assumptions we have made. For now, we believe that our assumptions represent the most probable case. This leads to the conclusion that we can not rule out the possibility of significant evolution of the cosmic neutral-gas-phase metallicity in the form of increasing metallicity with decreasing redshift. In fact, Figure 6 suggests this trend, but the results are also consistent with no evolution (Figure 5).

The statistics of low-redshift DLAs (RT2000) support the assumption that the identified DLA system in each quasar spectrum is the dominant large column density system along the sight-line to the quasar. Except in the case of S4 0248+430, the possibility of other significant absorption can be ruled out with some degree of certainty (§4.1). Also, because our sample is a radio-selected one, it probably does not suffer from the bias mentioned in §1, namely that chemically evolved DLA systems with significant dust are excluded from the sample due to optical dimming of background quasars. If present, this selection bias would cause an underestimate of the mean cosmic neutral-gas-phase metallicity at $`z0.4`$.

The results reported here show that CXO ACIS-S observations can be used to investigate some important issues involving the x-ray absorption properties of DLA gas. However, our present results on the objects considered here indicate that x-ray grating observations are required in order to definitively make DLA metallicity measurements at x-ray energies. Such observations would not only permit individual features from redshifted metals to be observed, it would also eliminate the simplifying assumption that the unabsorbed x-ray spectrum can be modeled with a simple power law.

Acknowledgments

We want to thank those involved with the CXO for making it a user-friendly facility. In addition, we want to especially thank the referee, Dr. George Chartas, for an excellent report which allowed us to substantially improve the paper.


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# Thermal Conduction in Magnetized Turbulent Gas

## 1 Astrophysical Motivation

It is well known that Astrophysical fluids are turbulent and that magnetic fields are dynamically important. One characteristic of the medium that magnetic fields and turbulence may substantially change is the heat transfer.

There are many instances when heat transfer through thermal conductivity is important. For instance, thermal conductivity is essential in rarefied gases where radiative heat transfer is suppressed. This is exactly the situation that is present in clusters of galaxies. It is widely accepted that ubiquitous X-ray emission due to hot gas in clusters of galaxies should cool significant amounts of the intracluster medium (ICM) and this must result in cooling flows (Fabian 1994). However, observations do not support the evidence for the cool gas (see Fabian et al. 2001) which is suggestive of the existence of heating that replenishes the energy lost via X-ray emission. Heat transfer from the outer hot regions can do the job, provided that the heat transfer is sufficiently efficient.

Gas in clusters of galaxies is magnetized and the conventional wisdom suggests that the magnetic fields strongly suppress thermal conduction perpendicular to their direction. Realistic magnetic fields are turbulent and the issue of the thermal conduction in such a situation has been long debated. A recent paper by Narayan & Medvedev (2001) obtained estimates for the thermal conductivity of turbulent magnetic fields, but those estimates happen to be too low to explain the absence of cooling flows for many of the clusters of galaxies (Zakamska & Narayan 2002).

Narayan & Medvedev (2001) treat the turbulent magnetic fields as static. In hydrodynamical turbulence it is possible to neglect plasma turbulent motions only when the diffusion of electrons which is the product of the electron thermal velocity $`v_{elect}`$ and the electron mean free path in plasma $`l_{mfp}`$, i.e. $`v_{elect}l_{mfp}`$, is greater than the turbulent velocity $`v_{turb}`$ times the turbulent injection scale $`l_{inj}`$, i.e. $`v_{turb}l_{inj}`$. If such scaling estimates are applicable to heat transport in magnetized plasma, the turbulent heat transport should be accounted for heat transfer within clusters of galaxies. Indeed, data for $`v_{elect}l_{mfp}`$ given in Zakamska & Narayan (2002; Narayan & Medvedev 2001) provide the classical Spitzer (1962) diffusion coefficient $`\kappa _{Sp}v_{elect}l_{mfp}6.2\times 10^{30}`$ cm2 sec-1 for the inner region of $`R100`$kpc and $`\kappa _{Sp}v_{elect}l_{mfp}3.6\times 10^{29}`$ cm2 sec-1 for the very inner region of $`R10`$kpc (for Hydra A). If turbulence in the cluster of galaxies is of the order of the velocity dispersion of galaxies, while the injection scale is of the order of $`20`$ kpc, the diffusion coefficient is $`v_{turb}l_{inj}3.1\times 10^{30}`$ cm2 sec-1, where we take $`v_{turb}500`$ km/sec.

Earlier numerical studies by Cho, Lazarian & Vishniac (2002) revealed a good correspondence between hydrodynamic motions and motions of fluid perpendicular to the local direction of magnetic field. To what extend heat transfer in a turbulent medium is affected by a magnetic field is the subject of the present study. To solve this problem we shall systematically study the passive scalar diffusion in a magnetized turbulent medium, compare results of MHD and hydrodynamic calculations, and investigate the heat transfer perpendicular and parallel to the mean magnetic field for magnetic fields of different intensities.

This work has a broad astrophysical impact. Clusters of galaxies is just one of the examples where non-radiative heat transfer is essential. This process, however, is important for many regions within galactic interstellar medium, e.g. for supernova remnants.

## 2 Numerical methods

We use a 3rd-order hybrid essentially non-oscillatory (ENO) upwind shock-capturing scheme to solve the ideal MHD equations. To reduce spurious oscillations near shocks, we combine two ENO schemes. When variables are sufficiently smooth, we use the 3rd-order Weighted ENO scheme (Jiang & Wu 1999) without characteristic mode decomposition. When the opposite is true, we use the 3rd-order Convex ENO scheme (Liu & Osher 1998). We use a three-stage Runge-Kutta method for time integration. We solve the ideal MHD equations in a periodic box:

$`\rho /t+(\rho 𝐯)=0,`$ (1)
$`𝐯/t+𝐯𝐯+\rho ^1(a^2\rho )(\times 𝐁)\times 𝐁/4\pi \rho =𝐟,`$ (2)
$`𝐁/t\times (𝐯\times 𝐁)=0,`$ (3)
with $`𝐁=0`$ and an isothermal equation of state. Here $`𝐟`$ is a random large-scale driving force, $`\rho `$ is density, $`𝐯`$ is the velocity, and $`𝐁`$ is magnetic field. The rms velocity $`v_{turb}`$ is maintained to be approximately unity, so that $`𝐯`$ can be viewed as the velocity measured in units of the r.m.s. velocity of the system and $`𝐁/\sqrt{4\pi \rho }`$ as the Alfvén velocity in the same units. The time $`t`$ is roughly in units of the large eddy turnover time ($`l_{inj}/v_{turb}`$) and the length in units of $`l_{inj}`$, the scale of the energy injection. The magnetic field consists of a uniform background field and a fluctuating field: $`𝐁=𝐁_0+𝐛`$.

We use a passive scalar $`\psi (𝐱)`$ to trace thermal particles. We inject a passive scalar with a Gaussian profile:

$$\psi (𝐱,t=t_0)\mathrm{exp}^{(𝐱𝐱_0)^2/\sigma _0^2},$$
(4)
where $`\sigma _0`$= $`1/16`$ of a side of the numerical box and $`𝐱_0`$ lies at the center of the computational box. The value of $`\sigma _0`$ ensures that the scalar is injected in the inertial range of turbulence. The energy injection scale ($`l_{inj}`$) is $`1/2.5`$ of a side of the numerical box. The scalar field follows the continuity equation

$$\psi /t+(\psi 𝐯)=0.$$
(5)
We are mainly concerned with time evolution of $`\sigma _i`$ (i=x, y, and z):

$$\sigma _i^2=\frac{(x_i\overline{x}_i)^2\psi (𝐱,t)d^3x}{\psi (𝐱,t)d^3x},$$
(6)
where $`\overline{x}_i=\left[x\psi (𝐱,t)d^3x/\psi (𝐱,t)d^3x\right]`$. Common wisdom was that the mean magnetic field suppresses diffusion in the direction perpendicular to it. If this is the case, we expect to see $`\sigma _{}<\sigma _{}`$. Otherwise, we will get $`\sigma _{}\sigma _{}`$.

We inject passive scalars after turbulence is fully developed. Fig. 1(a) shows when we inject the passive scalars. For the hydrodynamic run with $`M_s\text{ (sonic Mach number)}=0.3`$ and $`192^3`$ grid points (thick solid line), we inject passive scalars 5 times. The injection times are marked by arrows. We also mark the injection times by arrows for the MHD run with $`V_A(=B_0/\sqrt{4\pi \rho })=1`$, $`M_s=0.3`$, and $`192^3`$ grid points (thin solid line for $`<V^2>`$ and dashed line for $`<b^2>`$).

## 3 Theoretical Considerations

Consider two massless particles in the inertial range. Let the separation be $`l`$. The separation follows

$$\frac{dl^2}{dt}\frac{(l+v_ldt)^2(lv_ldt)^2}{dt}lv_l,$$
(7)
where we ignore constants of order unity. Using $`ϵv_l^3/l`$, we get

$$\frac{dl^2}{dt}l(ϵl)^{1/3},$$
(8)
where $`ϵ`$ is the energy injection rate. This leads to

$$l^{2/3}l_0^{2/3}=(C_R)^{1/3}ϵ^{1/3}(tt_0),$$
(9)
where $`C_R`$ is Richardson constant. When $`ll_0`$, we can write

$$l^2=C_Rϵ(tt_0)^3,$$
(10)
which was first discovered by Richardson (1926).

Recent direct numerical simulations suggest that $`C_R1`$. Boffetta & Sokolov (2002) obtained $`C_R0.55`$. Ishihara & Kaneda (2001) obtained $`C_R0.7`$.

When we inject a passive scalar field as in equation (4), we may write

$`\sigma ^{2/3}\sigma _0^{2/3}`$ $`=`$ $`(C_1)^{1/3}ϵ^{1/3}(tt_0),`$ (11)
$`=`$ $`C_2v_{turb}(tt_0),`$
where $`\sigma =(\sigma _x^2+\sigma _y^2+\sigma _z^2)^{1/2}`$ and the dimensionless constant $`C_1`$ is not necessarily the same as $`C_R`$. The constant $`C_2(C_1/l_{inj})^{1/3}`$ has dimension. In this paper, we do not attempt to obtain $`C_1`$ or $`C_R`$. Instead, we investigate how $`C_2`$ behaves when we vary $`B_0`$.

Usually it was considered that MHD turbulence is different from its hydrodynamic counterpart. However, recently Cho, Lazarian, & Vishniac (2002) showed that motions perpendicular to the local mean fields are hydrodynamic to high order. This means that many turbulent processes are as efficient as hydrodynamics ones. For example, Cho et al. (2002) numerically showed that cascade timescale in MHD turbulence follows hydrodynamic scaling relations (see also Maron & Goldreich 2001). The similarity between magnetized and unmagnetized turbulent flows motivates us to speculate that turbulent mixing is also efficient in MHD turbulence. This is why we may use equation (11), which is derived from hydrodynamic turbulence. It is worth noting that these facts are consistent with a recent model of fast magnetic reconnection in turbulent medium (Lazarian & Vishniac 1999).

## 4 Results

In Figure 1(b) and (c), we compare the time evolution of $`\sigma `$ in hydrodynamic case and in MHD case. In the MHD case, the Alfven velocity of the mean field ($`V_A=1`$) is slightly larger than the rms fluid velocity ($`v_{turb}0.7`$). This is so-called subAlfvenic regime. Since $`V_Av_{turb}`$, the turbulence is strong. The results show that turbulent diffusion is faster in hydrodynamic case. However, Figure 1(d) implies that this is due to reduction in velocity. Note that $`v_{turb}1`$ in the hydrodynamic case and $`v_{turb}0.7`$ in the MHD case (see Figure 1(a)).

Figure 1(d) shows that there are good relations between $`\sigma ^{2/3}`$ and $`(tt_0)`$. The slopes correspond to the constant $`C_2`$ in equation (11). The slopes are not very sensitive to $`V_A`$ or $`M_s`$.

Figure 1(e) and (f) shows that diffusion rate does not strongly depend on the direction of the mean field.

The validity of equation (7) enables us to write

$$\kappa _{dynamic}=C_{dyn}l_{inj}v_{turb},$$
(12)
where $`C_{dyn}`$ is a constant of order unity. This is the effective diffusion by turbulent motions suitable for scales larger than $`l_{inj}`$. The value of $`C_{dyn}`$ remains almost constant for $`B_0`$’s of up to $`B_0\delta Bv_{turb}`$. The exact value of $`C_{dyn}`$ is uncertain. In hydrodynamic cases, $`C_{dyn}`$ is of order of $`0.3`$ (see Lesieur 1990 chapter VIII and references therein).

## 5 Astrophysical Implications

We have shown that turbulence motions provide efficient mixing in MHD turbulence. In this section, we show that this process is as efficient as that proposed by Narayan & Medvedev (2001) for some clusters.

We summarize models of thermal diffusion in Fig. 2. In the classical picture, thermal diffusion is highly suppressed in the direction perpendicular to $`𝐁_0`$. Transport of heat along wondering magnetic field lines (Narayan & Medvedev 2001) partially alleviates the problem. But the applicability of Narayan & Medvedev’s model is a bit restricted - their model requires strong (i.e. $`V_AB_0/\sqrt{4\pi \rho }v_{turb}`$) mean magnetic field. In the Galaxy, there are strong mean magnetic fields. But, in the ICM, this is unlikely. When the mean field is weak, the scales smaller than the characteristic magnetic field scale ($`l_B`$) may follow the Goldreich & Sridhar model (1995). However, this requires further studies. Our turbulent mixing model gives the same $`\kappa _{dynamic}`$ regardless of magnetic field geometry.

ICM — As we mentioned earlier, $`\kappa _{Sp}1.3\times 10^{30}(kT/keV)^{5/2}(n/10^3cm^3)^1cm^2sec^1`$ and $`\kappa _{dynamic}3.1\times 10^{30}(v_{turb}/500km/s)(l_{inj}/20kpc)cm^2sec^1`$. The ratio of the two is of order unity for the ICM:

$$\mu _{ICM}\kappa _{dynamic}/\kappa _{Sp}O(1).$$
(13)
To be specific, for Hydra A, $`\mu 0.5`$ for the inner region ($`R100`$kpc) and $`\mu 8.6`$ for the very inner region ($`R10`$kpc). For 3C 295, $`\mu 0.34`$ for the inner region and $`\mu 24`$ for the very inner region.

Local Bubble and SNRs — The Local Bubble is a hot ($`T10^6K;kT`$ 100 eV), tenuous ($`n0.008/cm^3`$) cavity immersed in the interstellar medium (Berghofer et al 1998; Smith & Cox 2001). Turbulence parameters are uncertain. We take typical interstellar medium values: $`l_{inj}`$ 10 pc and $`v_{turb}`$ 5 km/sec. For these parameters, the ratio of $`\kappa _{dynamic}`$ to $`\kappa _{Sp}`$ is

$$\mu _{in}=\kappa _{dynamic}/\kappa _{Sp}0.05,$$
(14)
for the inside of the Local Bubble. For the mixing layers, it is

$$\mu _{mix}=\kappa _{dynamic}/\kappa _{Sp}100,$$
(15)
where we take $`\overline{T}\sqrt{T_cT_h}10^5K`$, $`\overline{n}\sqrt{n_cn_h}0.1/cm^3`$ (Begelman & Fabian 1990), $`T_c10^4K`$, $`n_c1/cm^3`$, $`T_h10^6K`$, and $`n_h0.008/cm^3`$. We expect similar results for supernova remnants since parameters are similar.

## 6 Conclusion

We have shown that magnetic fields (either random or mean magnetic field of up to equipartition value) do not suppress turbulent diffusion processes, which implies that turbulent diffusion coefficient has the form $`\kappa _{dyn}l_{inj}v_{turb}`$ in MHD turbulence, as well as in hydrodynamic cases. This result has two important astrophysical implications. First, in the ICM, this turbulent diffusion coefficient is of the same order of the classical Spitzer value. Second, in the face of hot and cold media in the ISM (e.g. the boundary between the Local Bubble and surrounding warm media), this turbulent diffusion coefficient is much larger than the classical Spitzer value.

## Acknowledgments

A.L. and J.C. acknowledge the support from the Center for Turbulence Research (CTR) at Stanford University. This work utilized computing facilities at the CTR.