The Galaxy Counterparts of the two high-metallicity DLAs at z=2.412 and
  z=2.583 towards Q0918+1636
  The quasar Q0918+1636 (z=3.07) has two intervening high-metallicity Damped
Lyman-alpha Absorbers (DLAs) along the line of sight, at redshifts of z=2.412
and 2.583. The z=2.583 DLA is located at a large impact parameter of 16.2 kpc,
and despite this large impact parameter it has a very high metallicity
(consistent with solar), a substantial fraction of H_2 molecules, and it is
dusty as inferred from the reddened spectrum of the background QSO. The z=2.412
DLA has a metallicity of [M/H]=-0.6 (based on ZnII and SiII). In this paper we
present new observations of this interesting sightline. HST/WFC3 imaging was
obtained in the F606W, F105W and F160W bands. This is complemented by
ground-based imaging in the u-, g-bands as well as K_s observations in the
near-infrared (NIR). In addition, we present further spectroscopy with the
ESO/VLT X-Shooter spectrograph. Based on these observations we obtain the
following results: By fitting stellar population synthesis models to the
photometric SED we constrain the physical properties of the z=2.583 DLA galaxy,
and we infer its morphology by fitting a Sersic model to its surface brightness
profile. We find it to be a relatively massive (M_star 10^10 M_sun), strongly
star-forming (SFR~30 M_sun / yr, dusty (E_(B-V)=0.4) galaxy with a disk-like
morphology. We detect most of the strong emission lines from the z=2.583 DLA
[OIII],3727, [OIII],4960, [OIII],5007, Hbeta, and Halpha, albeit at low
signal-to-noise (SN) ratio except for the [OIII],5007 line. We also detect
[OIII],5007 emission from the galaxy counterpart of the z=2.412 DLA at a small
impact parameter (<2 kpc). Overall our findings are consistent with the
emerging picture that high-metallicity DLAs are associated with relatively
(compared to typical DLAs) luminous and massive galaxy counterparts.
