2010ApJ...720..328J

We report on a dusty Mg II absorber associated with the quasar SDSS J003545.13+011441.2 (hereafter J0035+0114) at z = 1.5501, the strongest of the three Mg II absorbers along the sight line of the quasar. The two low-redshift intervening absorbers are at z = 0.7436 and 0.5436. Based on the photometric and spectroscopic data of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), we infer that the rest-frame color excess E(B - V) due to the associated dust is more than 0.07 by assuming a Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) type extinction curve. Our follow-up moderate resolution spectroscopic observation with the ESI spectrometer at the 10 m Keck telescope enables us to reliably identify most of the important metal elements, such as Zn, Fe, Mn, Mg, Al, Si, Cr, and Ni, in the associated system. We measure the column density of each species and detect significant dust depletion. In addition, we develop a simulation technique to gauge the significance of a 2175 Å dust absorption bump in the SDSS quasar spectra. By using this technique, we analyze the SDSS spectrum of J0035+0114 for the presence of an associated 2175 Å extinction feature and report a tentative detection at a ∼2σ significant level.