Adaptive Optics Imaging of a Massive Galaxy Associated with a Metal-rich Absorber

The damped and sub-damped Ly alpha absorption (DLA and sub-DLA) line systems in quasar spectra are believed to be produced by intervening galaxies. However, the connection of quasar absorbers to galaxies is not well-understood, since attempts to image the absorbing galaxies have often failed. While most DLAs appear to be metal poor, a population of metal-rich absorbers, mostly sub-DLAs, has been discovered in recent studies. Here we report high-resolution K-band imaging with the Keck laser guide star adaptive optics (LGSAO) system of the field of quasar SDSSJ1323-0021 in search of the galaxy producing the z = 0.72 sub-DLA absorber. With a metallicity of 2-4 times the solar level, this absorber is one of the most metal-rich systems found to date. Our data show a large bright galaxy with an angular separation of only 1 ".25 from the quasar, well-resolved from the quasar at the high resolution of our data. The galaxy has a magnitude of K = 17.6-17.9, which corresponds to a luminosity of approximate to 3-6 L*. Morphologically, the galaxy is fitted with a model with an effective radius, enclosing half of the total light, of R(e) = 4 kpc and a bulge-to-total ratio of 0.4-1.0, indicating a substantial bulge stellar population. Based on the mass-metallicity relation of nearby galaxies, the absorber galaxy appears to have a stellar mass of greater than or similar to 10(11) M(circle dot). Given the small impact parameter (9.0 kpc at the absorber redshift), this massive galaxy appears to be responsible for the metal-rich sub-DLA. The absorber galaxy is consistent with the metallicity-luminosity relation observed for nearby galaxies, but is near the upper end of metallicity. Our study marks the first application of LGSAO for the study of the structure of galaxies producing distant quasar absorbers. Finally, this study offers the first example of a massive galaxy with a substantial bulge producing a metal-rich absorber.