Low- and high-ionization absorption properties of MgII absorption-selected galaxies at intermediate redshifts. I. General properties

We present extensive metal-line absorption properties for 45 absorption systems that were selected by their Mg II absorption at redshifts between 0.4 and 1.4. For each system the properties of several chemical species are determined, including a wide range of ionization conditions. In the optical, the absorption systems have been observed at similar to6 km s(-1) resolution with HIRES/Keck, which covered Mg II, several Fe II transitions, Mg I, and in some cases (depending upon redshift) Ca rr, Ti II, Mn II, and Al In. Ultraviolet, lower resolution (similar to 230 km s(-1)) Faint Object Spectrograph data (1600-3275 Angstrom) were obtained from the Hubble Space Telescope archive. These spectra covered Al II, Al III, Si II, Si III, Si Iv, C rr, C III, C Iv, N V, O VI, and several Lyman series transitions, with coverage dependent upon the absorption system redshift. From these data, we infer that Mg II-absorbing galaxies at intermediate redshifts have multiphase gaseous structures.