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Galaxies hosting z~2 quasars are the high-$z$ progenitors of todays massive `red-and-dead galaxies. With close pairs of quasars at different redshifts, a background quasar can be used to study a foreground quasars halo gas in absorption, providing a wealth of information about feedback, quenching, and the physics of massive galaxy formation. We present a Keck/HIRES spectrum of the bright background quasar in a projected pair with angular separation 13.3 corresponding to 108kpc at the redshift of the foreground quasar z_fg=2.4360 +/- 0.0005, precisely determined from Gemini/GNIRS near-IR spectroscopy. Our echelle spectrum reveals optically thick gas (NHI~10^19.7), coincident with the foreground quasar redshift. The ionic transitions of associated metal-lines reveal the following properties of the foreground quasars halo: (1) the kinematics are extreme with absorption extending to +780km/s relative to z_fg; (2) the metallicity is nearly solar; (3) the temperature of the predominantly ionized gas is T<~20,000K; (4) the electron density is n_e~1 cm^-3 indicating a characteristic size ~10 - 100pc for the absorbing `clouds; (7) there is a negligible amount of warm gas 10^5K < T < 10^6K; (8) the gas is unlikely illuminated by the foreground quasar, implying anisotropic or intermittent emission. The mass of cold T~10^4K gas implied by our observations is significant, amounting to a few percent of the total expected baryonic mass density of the foreground quasars dark halo at r~100kpc. The origin of this material is still unclear, and we discuss several possibilities in the context of current models of feedback and massive galaxy formation.
Quasars accreting matter at very high rates (known as extreme Population A [xA] or super-Eddington accreting massive black holes) provide a new class of distance indicators covering cosmic epochs from the present-day Universe up to less than 1 Gyr fr
We characterize the physical properties of the cool T ~10^4 K circumgalactic medium surrounding z ~2-3 quasar host galaxies, which are predicted to evolve into present day massive ellipticals. Using a statistical sample of 14 quasar pairs with projec
We survey the incidence and absorption strength of the metal-line transitions CII 1334 and CIV from the circumgalactic medium (CGM) surrounding z~2 quasars, which act as signposts for massive dark matter halos M_halo~10^12.5 Msun. On scales of the vi
With close pairs of quasars at different redshifts, a background quasar sightline can be used to study a foreground quasars environment in absorption. We used a sample of 17 Lyman limit systems with column density N_HI > 10^19 cm^-2 selected from 149
With close pairs of quasars at different redshifts, a background quasar sightline can be used to study a foreground quasars environment in absorption. We search 149 moderate resolution background quasar spectra, from Gemini, Keck, the MMT, and the SD