The Quasar / Galaxy Pair PKS 1327-206 / ESO 1327-2041: Absorption
  Associated with a Recent Galaxy Merger
  We present HST/WFPC2 broadband and ground-based Halpha images, H I 21-cm
emission maps, and low-resolution optical spectra of the nearby galaxy ESO
1327-2041, which is located 38 arcsec (14 kpc in projection) west of the quasar
PKS 1327-206. Our HST images reveal that ESO 1327-2041 has a complex optical
morphology, including an extended spiral arm that was previously classified as
a polar ring. Our optical spectra show Halpha emission from several H II
regions in this arm located ~5 arcsec from the quasar position (~2 kpc in
projection) and our ground-based Halpha images reveal the presence of several
additional H II regions in an inclined disk near the galaxy's center.
Absorption associated with ESO 1327-2041 is found in H I 21-cm, optical, and
near-UV spectra of PKS 1327-206. We find two absorption components at cz = 5255
and 5510 km/s in the H I 21-cm absorption spectrum, which match the velocities
of previously discovered metal-line components. We attribute the 5510 km/s
absorber to disk gas in the extended spiral arm and the 5255 km/s absorber to
high-velocity gas that has been tidally stripped from the disk of ESO
1327-2041. The complexity of the galaxy/absorber relationships for these very
nearby H I 21-cm absorbers suggests that the standard view of high redshift
damped Lyman-alpha absorbers is oversimplified in many cases.
