Surveys for<i>z</i> &gt; 3 Damped Lyα Absorption Systems: The Evolution of Neutral Gas

Storrie-Lombardi, L. J.; Wolfe, Arthur M.

doi:10.1086/317138

Cited by 251 publications

(310 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…The expected number of DLAS (N(H ) > 2 × 10 20 cm −2 ) and LLS (2 × 10 17 < N(H ) < 2 × 10 20 cm −2 ) in the redshift interval covered by our 7 spectra as computed from their number density as a function of redshift -N(z) DLAS 0.055(1 + z) 1.11 , N(z) LLS 0.27(1 + z) 1.55 (Storrie-Lombardi & Wolfe 2000)-is of 1 and 9, respectively. We detect 3 DLASs and 8 LLSs indicating that our lines of sight are not strongly biased toward an overabundance of high column density systems.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High matter density peaks from UVES observations of QSO pairs: Correlation properties and chemical abundances

D’Odorico

Petitjean

Cristiani

2002

A&A

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Abstract. We study the transverse clustering properties of high matter density peaks as traced by high column density absorption systems (either Lyman limit systems characterized by N(H ) ≥ 2 × 10 17 cm −2 or C  systems with W r > 0.5 Å) at redshifts between 2 and 3 with UVES spectra of two QSO pairs (UM680/UM681 at 56 arcsec angular separation and Q2344+1228/Q2343+1232 at 5 arcmin angular separation) and a QSO triplet (Q2139-4433/Q2139-4434/Q2138-4427 at 1, 7 and 8 arcmin angular separation). We find 3 damped Lyman-α systems (N(H ) ≥ 2 × 10 20 cm −2 ): 2 coinciding with strong metal systems in the nearby line of sight and 1 matching the emission redshift of the paired QSO; plus 7 Lyman limit systems: 4 forming two matching couples and 3 without a corresponding metal system within ∼3000 km s −1 in the coupled line of sight. In summary, we detect five out of ten matching systems within 1000 km s −1 , indicating a highly significant overdensity of strong absorption systems over separation lengths from ∼1 to 8 h −1 Mpc. The observed coincidences could arise in gas due to starburst-driven superwinds associated with a quasar or a galaxy, or gas belonging to large scale structures like filaments or sheets. We also determine chemical abundance ratios for three damped Lyman-α systems. In particular, for the damped system at z ∼ 2.53788 in the spectrum of Q2344+1228, new estimates of the ratios O/Fe, C/Fe are obtained: −0.02 < [C/Fe] < 0.06, −0.06 < [O/Fe] < 0.2. They indicate that O and C are not over-solar in this system.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High matter density peaks from UVES observations of QSO pairs: Correlation properties and chemical abundances

D’Odorico

Petitjean

Cristiani

2002

A&A

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“…The H I column densities of DLAs are so high that they, contrary to other classes of QSO absorbers, are mostly neutral. DLAs are thought to be the dominant reservoirs of neutral gas in the Universe in the interval z = 0-5; and this neutral gas is where a significant fraction of the stellar mass in present-day galaxies finds its origin (Storrie-Lombardi & Wolfe 2000;Wolfe et al 2005). Thanks to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), over 10 000 z > 2 DLAs are identified in the spectra of QSOs (Prochaska, Herbert-Fort & Wolfe 2005;Noterdaeme et al 2009Noterdaeme et al , 2012bProchaska & Wolfe 2009).…”

Section: Based On Observations Obtained With Eso Telescopes At the Pamentioning

confidence: 99%

Galaxy counterparts of metal-rich damped Lyα absorbers: the case of J205922.4−052842★

Hartoog

Fynbo

Kaper

et al. 2015

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. ABSTRACTWe present observations of three new sources in the European Southern Observatory VLT/Xshooter survey dedicated to the detection of the emitting counterparts of damped Lyα (DLA) systems towards bright quasars (QSOs). The aim is to bridge the observational gap between absorption (i.e. DLAs) and emission-selected galaxies at z ∼ 2.2-2.5, in order to get a more complete picture of (proto)galaxies around this epoch. The hypothesis is that because DLA galaxies fulfil metallicity-velocity width and luminosity-metallicity relations, highmetallicity DLAs are more likely to be detected in emission. The region around each QSO is covered with slits (1. We conclude that focusing on metal-rich DLAs is a good way to find counterparts, but the non-detections at high metallicity (e.g. that of the DLA in J105744.5+062914) show that there is not a one-to-one relationship, and cautions us to not naively apply the properties of the DLA counterparts to all metal-rich DLAs.

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“…characterized by a fast decline at N H > N * (Pei & Fall 1995;Storrie-Lombardi & Wolfe 2000;Péroux et al 2003).…”

Section: The Shape Of the True N H Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The dust obscuration bias in damped Lyman αsystems

Vladilo

Péroux

2005

A&A

141

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We present a new study of the effects of quasar obscuration on the statistics of Damped Ly α (DLA) systems. We show that the extinction of any Galactic or extragalactic H i region, A λ , increases linearly with the column density of zinc, with a turning point ∂A λ /∂(log N Zn ) = 1, above which background sources are suddenly obscured. We derive a relation A λ = A λ (N H , Z, z) between the extinction of a DLA system and its H i column density, N H , metallicity, Z, fraction of iron in dust, f Fe (Z), and redshift, z. From this relation we estimate the fraction of DLA systems missed as a consequence of their own extinction in magnitude-limited surveys. We derive a method for recovering the true frequency distributions of N H and Z in DLAs, f N H and f Z , using the biased distributions measured in the redshift range where the observations have sufficient statistics (1.8 ≤ z ≤ 3). By applying our method we find that the well-known empirical thresholds of DLA column densities, N Zn < ∼ 10 13.1 atoms cm −2 and N H i < ∼ 10 22 atoms cm −2 , can be successfully explained in terms of the obscuration effect without tuning of the local dust parameters. The obscuration has a modest effect on the distribution of quasar apparent magnitudes, but plays an important role in shaping the statistical distributions of DLAs. The exact estimate of the bias is still limited by the paucity of the data ( 40 zinc measurements at 1.8 ≤ z ≤ 3). We find that the fraction of DLAs missed as a consequence of obscuration is ∼30% to 50%, consistent with the results of surveys of radio-selected quasars. By modelling the metallicity distribution with a Schechter function we find that the mean metallicity can be ∼5 to 6 times higher than the value commonly reported for DLAs at z ∼ 2.3.

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Surveys forz > 3 Damped Lyα Absorption Systems: The Evolution of Neutral Gas

Cited by 251 publications

References 54 publications

High matter density peaks from UVES observations of QSO pairs: Correlation properties and chemical abundances

High matter density peaks from UVES observations of QSO pairs: Correlation properties and chemical abundances

Galaxy counterparts of metal-rich damped Lyα absorbers: the case of J205922.4−052842★

The dust obscuration bias in damped Lyman αsystems

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