Detection of OH and wide HI absorption toward B0218+357

We present deep GMRT OH and WSRT HI absorption spectra of the $z=0.6846$ gravitational lens toward B0218+357. Both the 1665 MHz and 1667 MHz OH lines are clearly detected for the first time while a new wide absorption component was detected (at low significance) in the HI spectrum; the OH spectra yielded an OH column density of $N_{OH}=2.3\times {10}^{15}$ cm^{-2}. The ratio of 1667 and 1665 MHz equivalent widths is $\sim 1.8$ while the redshift of peak OH absorption is $z=0.68468\pm 0.000008$ for both lines; this redshift agrees with that obtained from the HI line. The velocity spread (between nulls) of the HI absorption is $\sim 140$ km/s, while that of both OH lines is $\sim 100$ km/s; the HI and OH spectra are broadly similar in that they each have two principal narrow components and a wide absorption trough. We argue that the wide absorption is likely to arise from source components in the Einstein ring and derive a rotation velocity of $\sim 150$ km/s at a distance of 1.5 kpc from the centre of the $z\sim 0.6846$ galaxy.