High-resolution observations of two OVI absorbers at z=2 towards PKS
  1448-232
  To explore the ionization conditions in highly-ionized absorbers at high
redshift we have studied in detail two intervening OVI absorbers at z=2 towards
the quasar PKS1448-232, based on high (R=75,000) and intermediate (R=45,000)
resolution optical VLT/UVES spectra. We find that both absorption systems are
composed of several narrow subcomponents with CIV/OVI Doppler-parameters b<10
km/s, typically. This implies that the gas temperatures are T<10^5 K and that
the absorbers are photoionized by the UV background. The system at z=2.1098
represents a simple, isolated OVI absorber that has only two absorption
components and that is relatively metal-rich (Z\sim 0.6 solar). Ioinization
modeling implies that the system is photoionized with OVI, CIV, and HI
coexisting in the same gas phase. The second system at z=2.1660 represents a
complicated, multi-component absorption system with eight OVI components
spanning almost 300 km/s in radial velocity. The photoionization modeling
implies that the metallicity is non-uniform and relatively low (<= 0.1 solar)
and that the OVI absorption must arise in a gas phase different from that
traced by CIV, CIII, and HI. Our detailed study of the two OVI systems towards
PKS1448-232 shows that multi-phase, multi-component high-ion absorbers like the
one at z=2.1660 require a detailed ionization modeling of the various
subcomponents to obtain reliable results on the physical conditions and
metal-abundances in the gas.
