Asymmetric Absorption Profiles of Ly\alpha\ and Ly\beta\ in Damped Lyman Alpha Systems

Abstract

Damped Ly\alpha\ systems (DLAs) observed in the quasar spectra are characterized by a high neutral hydrogen column density $N_{HI}>2\times 10^{20}{\rm\ cm^{-2}}$. The absorption wing profiles are often fitted using the Voigt function due to the fact that the scattering cross section near resonant line center is approximately described by the Lorentzian function. Since a hydrogen atom has infinitely many $p$ states that participate in the electric dipole interaction, the cross section starts to deviate from the Lorentzian in an asymmetric way in the line wing regions. We investigate this asymmetry in the absorption line profiles around Ly\alpha\ and Ly\beta\ as a function of the neutral hydrogen column density $N_{HI}$. In terms of $\Delta\lambda\equiv\lambda-\lambda_\alpha$ we expand the Kramers-Heisenberg formula around Ly\alpha\ to find $\sigma(\lambda)\simeq (0.5 f_{12})^2\sigma_{T}(\Delta\lambda/\lambda_\alpha)^{-2}[1+3.792 (\Delta\lambda/\lambda_\alpha)]$, where $f_{12}$ and $\sigma_T$ are the oscillator strength of Ly$\alpha$ and the Thomson scattering cross section, respectively. In terms of $\Delta\lambda_2\equiv\lambda-\lambda_\beta$ in the vicinity of Ly\beta, the total scattering cross section, given as the sum of cross sections for Rayleigh and Raman scattering, is shown to be $\sigma(\lambda)\simeq \sigma_T(0.5f_{13})^2(1+R_0) (\Delta\lambda_2/\lambda_\beta)^{-2}[1-24.68(\Delta\lambda_2/\lambda_\beta)]$ with $f_{13}$ and the factor $R_0=0.1342$ being the oscillator strength for Ly\beta\ and the ratio of Raman cross section to Rayleigh cross section, respectively. A redward asymmetry develops around Ly\alpha\ whereas a blue asymmetry is obtained for Ly\beta. The absorption center shifts are found to be almost proportional to the neutral hydrogen column density.