Relation between the Lyman-α Emission and Absorption Lines of Quasar Pairs

We investigated the relation between the Lyman-α emission and absorption lines of quasar pairs by exploring possible correlation between the equivalent widths of the two kinds of lines. We used 12 moderately resolved quasar pairs from the Sloan Digitized Sky Survey (SDSS) for the study, where the equivalent widths of the Lyman-α emission lines of the foreground quasars are available in literature. The equivalent widths of the corresponding Ly-α absorption lines of the background quasars were measured from their spectra data downloaded from the SDSS web-site. We found no correlation between rest-frame equivalent widths of the Ly-α emission and absorption lines, favoring the previous suggestion that the Ly-α absorption lines in background quasars are due to optically thick absorbers near the foreground quasars, and the Ly-α emission lines originate from the foreground quasars themselves.