Detection of a multi-phase ISM at z=0.2212

We present sensitive Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and high-resolution Arecibo HI 21-cm observations of the damped Lyman-alpha absorber (DLA) at z = 0.2212 towards OI 363 (B2 0738+313). The GMRT and Arecibo spectra are in excellent agreement and yield a spin temperature T-s = 890 +/- 160 K, consistent with earlier lower sensitivity observations of the system. This value of T-s is far higher than spin temperatures measured for the Milky Way and local spirals but is similar to T-s values obtained in the majority of damped absorbers (T-s greater than or similar to 1000 K). The high velocity resolution of the Arecibo spectra enables us to obtain estimates of physical conditions in the absorbing clouds by fitting multiple Gaussians to the absorption profile. The spectra are well fit by a three-component model with two narrow and one wide components, with temperatures T-k1 = 308 +/- 24 K, T-k2 = 180 +/- 30 K and T-k3 = 7600 +/- 1250 K, respectively. The last of these is in excellent agreement with the expected temperatures for the WNM (5000-8000 K). Further, the mere fact that components are seen with lower temperatures than the estimated T-s implies that the absorber must have a multi-phase medium. We use the measured 21-cm optical depth and the above estimates of the kinetic temperature to obtain the HI column density in the various components. The total column density in the narrow components is found to be N-HI(CNM) less than or equal to 1.9 +/- 0.25 x 10(20) cm(-2), while that in the wide component is N-HI(WNM) greater than or equal to 1.26 +/- 0.49 x 10(21) cm(-2). Thus, the WNM contains at least 75% of the total HI in the z = 0.2212 DLA, unlike our Galaxy, in which the CNM and WNM have equitable contributions. As conjectured earlier (Chengalur & Kanekar 2000), this accounts for the difference in the spin temperatures of the z = 0.2212 system and local spirals, suggesting that the DLA is probably a dwarf or LSB type galaxy; this is also in agreement with optical studies (Turnshek et al. 2001). Finally, the total column density in the DLA is found to be N-HI similar to 1.45 +/- 0.49 x 10(21) cm(-2), which agrees within the errors with the value of N-HI = 7.9 +/- 1.4 x 10(20) cm(-2), obtained from the Lyman-alpha profile (Rao & Turnshek 1998). This reinforces our identification of the wide and narrow components as the WNM and CNM respectively.