Calibrating Galaxy Redshifts Using Absorption by the Surrounding
  Intergalactic Medium
  Rest-frame UV spectral lines of star-forming galaxies are systematically
offset from the galaxies' systemic redshifts, probably because of large-scale
outflows. We calibrate galaxy redshifts measured from rest-frame UV lines by
utilizing the fact that the mean HI Ly-alpha absorption profiles around the
galaxies, as seen in spectra of background objects, must be symmetric with
respect to the true galaxy redshifts if the galaxies are oriented randomly with
respect to the lines of sight to the background objects. We use 15 QSOs at
z~2.5-3 and more than 600 foreground galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts at
z~1.9-2.5. All galaxies are within 2 Mpc proper from the lines of sight to the
background QSOs. We find that LyA emission and ISM absorption redshifts require
systematic shifts of v_LyA=-295(+35)(-35) km/s and v_ISM=145(+70)(-35) km/s.
Assuming a Gaussian distribution, we put 1-sigma upper limits on possible
random redshift offsets of <220 km/s for LyA and <420 km/s for ISM redshifts.
For the small subset (<10%) of galaxies for which near-IR spectra have been
obtained, we can compare our results to direct measurements based on nebular
emission lines which we confirm to mark the systemic redshifts. While our v_ISM
agrees with the direct measurements, our v_LyA is significantly smaller.
However, when we apply our method to the near-IR subsample which is
characterized by slightly different selection effects, the best-fit velocity
offset comes into agreement with the direct measurement. This confirms the
validity of our approach, and implies that no single number appropriately
describes the whole population of galaxies, in line with the observation that
the line offset depends on galaxy spectral morphology. This method provides
accurate redshift calibrations and will enable studies of circumgalactic matter
around galaxies for which rest-frame optical observations are not available.
