Abstract
We present Keck LRIS spectra of a candidate damped Lyα (DLA) galaxy toward the QSO 3C 196 (zem = 0.871). The DLA absorption system has a redshift of zDLA = 0.437, and a galaxy at 1.5'' from the QSO has been identified in high-resolution imaging with WFPC2 on board the Hubble Space Telescope. We have detected emission lines of [O II] λ3727, Hβ, [O III] λ5007, Hα, and [N II] λ6584 at the absorption redshift. Based on the emission lines, we have found the redshift of the galaxy to be zem = 0.4376 ± 0.0006. The emission lines also enabled us to calculate the extinction-corrected luminosities and metallicity indicators using established indices based on line strengths of different emission lines. These indicators suggest that the interstellar medium of the DLA galaxy has a high metallicity comparable to or perhaps twice as much as solar [i.e., 12 + log(O/H) = 8.98 ± 0.07]. Based on the strengths of Hα and on the reddening derived from the relative strengths of Hα and Hβ, the star formation rate is 4.7 ± 0.8 M⊙ yr-1. This places the galaxy in the range of gas-rich spiral galaxies.
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