We report the detection of OH 1667 MHz and wide H i 21cm absorption at z \sim 0.67 towards the red quasar 1504+377 , with the Green Bank Telescope and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope .
The H i 21cm absorption extends over a velocity range of \sim 600 km/s blueward of the quasar redshift ( z = 0.674 ) , with the new OH 1667 MHz absorption component at \sim - 430 km s ^ { -1 } , nearly coincident with earlier detections of mm-wave absorption at z \sim 0.6715 .
The atomic and molecular absorption appear to arise from a fast gas outflow from the quasar , with a mass outflow rate { \dot { M } } \sim 12 M _ { \odot } yr ^ { -1 } and a molecular hydrogen fraction f _ { H _ { 2 } } \equiv ( N _ { H _ { 2 } } / N _ { HI } ) \sim 0.2 .
The radio structure of 1504+377 is consistent with the outflow arising due to a jet-cloud interaction , followed by rapid cooling of the cloud material .
The observed ratio of HCO ^ { + } to OH column densities is \sim 20 times higher than typical values in Galactic and high- z absorbers .
This could arise due to small-scale structure in the outflowing gas on sub-parsec scales , which would also explain the observed variability in the H i 21cm line .