THE FIRST OBSERVATIONS OF LOW-REDSHIFT DAMPED Lyα SYSTEMS WITH THE COSMIC ORIGINS SPECTROGRAPH: CHEMICAL ABUNDANCES AND AFFILIATED GALAXIES

Battisti, Andrew; Meiring, Joseph D.; Tripp, Todd M.; Prochaska, J. Xavier; Werk, Jessica K.; Jenkins, Edward B.; Lehner, N.; Tumlinson, Jason; Thom, Christopher

doi:10.1088/0004-637x/744/2/93

Cited by 63 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…The cosmic evolution of the DLAs (e.g., Prochaska et al 2003a;Battisti et al 2012;Rafelski et al 2012;Jorgenson et al 2013) and SLLSs (e.g., Som et al 2013Som et al , 2015FOP16;Quiret et al 2016) has been well studied for several years. In Figure 9, we show the metallicity evolution of the pLLSs and LLSs as a function of redshift (and look-back time), where the low-and high-z absorbers were selected and analyzed using the same methodology.…”

Section: Evolution Of the Metallicity With Zmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cosmic Evolution of the Metallicity Distribution of Ionized Gas Traced by Lyman Limit Systems

Lehner

O’Meara

Howk

et al. 2016

ApJ

192

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(2016) 'The cosmic evolution of the metallicity distribution of ionized gas traced by Lyman limit systems.', Astrophysical journal., Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. ), which are probed of the interface regions between the intergalactic medium (IGM) and galaxies. We study 31 H Iselected pLLSs and LLSs at < < z 2.3 3.3 observed with Keck/HIRES in absorption against background QSOs. We compare the column densities of metal ions to H I and use photoionization models to assess the metallicity. The metallicity distribution of the pLLSs/LLSs at < < z 2.3 3.3 is consistent with a unimodal distribution peaking atThe metallicity distribution of these absorbers therefore evolves markedly with z since at  z 1 it is bimodal with peaks atThere is a substantial fraction (25%-41%) of pLLSs/LLSs with metallicities well below those of damped Lyα absorbers (DLAs) at any studied z from  z 1 toz 2-4, implying reservoirs of metal-poor, cool, dense gas in the IGM/galaxy interface at all z. However, the gas probed by pLLSs and LLSs is rarely pristine, with a fraction of 3%-18% for pLLSs/LLSs withWe find C/α enhancement in several pLLSs and LLSs in the metallicity range, where C/α is 2-5 times larger than observed in Galactic metal-poor stars or high-redshift DLAs at similar metallicities. This is likely caused by preferential ejection of carbon from metal-poor galaxies into their surroundings.

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Section: Evolution Of the Metallicity With Zmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Cosmic Evolution of the Metallicity Distribution of Ionized Gas Traced by Lyman Limit Systems

Lehner

O’Meara

Howk

et al. 2016

ApJ

192

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“…While strong Mg ii systems are also likely DLAs (Rao et al 2006), little is known about the galaxies associated with bona-fide DLAs at high redshift. Owing to their selection based only on the cross-section of neutral gas, we can expect DLAs to originate from galaxies with a wide diversity of morphological types (see Battisti et al 2012, for recent results at low redshift). It is thus very important to search for the associated galaxies and look for possible trends between the properties of the absorbers and their associated galaxies to start drawing a coherent picture about DLA galaxies.…”

Section: Conclusion: Implications For the Dla-galaxy Connectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Discovery of a compact gas-rich damped Lyman-αgalaxy atz = 2.2: evidence of a starburst-driven outflow

Noterdaeme

Laursen

Petitjean

et al. 2012

A&A

124

144

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We present the detection of Ly α, [O iii], and H α emission associated with an extremely strong damped Lyman-α (DLA) system (N(H i) = 10 22.10 cm −2 ) at z = 2.207 towards the quasar SDSS J113520.39−001053.56. This is the largest H i column density ever measured along a quasi-stellar object (QSO) line of sight, though typical of those often found in DLAs associated to gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). This absorption system can also be classified as an ultra-strong Mg ii system with W λ2796 , and is unresolved. From the H α line, we measure a significant star formation rate (SFR) ≈ 25 M yr −1 (uncorrected for dust). The shape of the Ly α line is double-peaked, which is the signature of a resonant scattering of Ly α photons, and the Ly α emission is spatially extended. More strikingly, the blue and red Ly α peaks arise from distinct regions extended over a few kpc on either side of the star-forming region. We propose that this is the consequence of a Ly α transfer in outflowing gas. The presence of starburst-driven outflows is also in agreement with the high SFR together with the small size and low mass of the galaxy (M vir ∼ 10 10 M ). By placing constraints on the stellar UV continuum luminosity of the galaxy, we estimate an age of at most a few 10 7 yr, again consistent with a recent starburst scenario. We interpret these data as the observation of a young, gas-rich, compact starburst galaxy, from which material is expelled through collimated winds powered by the vigorous star formation activity. We substantiate this picture by modelling the radiative transfer of Ly α photons in the galactic counterpart. Though our model (a spherical galaxy with bipolar outflowing jets) is a simplistic representation of the true gas distribution and velocity field, the agreement between the observed and simulated properties is particularly good (spectral shape and width of the Lyman-α emission, spatial configuration, escape fraction as well as absorption kinematics, H i column density, and dust reddening). Finally, we propose that selecting DLAs with very high H i column densities may be an efficient way of detecting star-forming galaxies at small impact parameters from the background QSO lines of sight.

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“…The most commonly used atomic data reference for the analysis of absorption lines in DLAs and sub-DLAs is Morton (2003) (see, e.g., Battisti et al 2012;Guimaraes et al 2012;Kulkarni et al 2012;Rafelski et al 2012;Jorgenson et al 2013;Som et al 2013Som et al , 2015. On the other hand, there is a need to improve beyond the oscillator strengths of Morton (2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atomic Data for Zn Ii: Improving Spectral Diagnostics of Chemical Evolution in High-Redshift Galaxies

Kisielius

Kulkarni

Ferland

et al. 2015

ApJ

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Damped Lyα (DLA) and sub-DLA absorbers in quasar spectra provide the most sensitive tools for measuring the element abundances of distant galaxies. The estimation of abundances from absorption lines depends sensitively on the accuracy of the atomic data used. We have started a project to produce new atomic spectroscopic parameters for optical andUV spectral lines using state-of-the-art computer codes employing a very broad configuration interaction (CI) basis. Here we report our results for Zn II, an ion used widely in studies of the interstellar medium (ISM) as well as DLAs andsub-DLAs. We report new calculations of many energy levels of Zn IIand the line strengths of the resulting radiative transitions. Our calculations use the CI approach within a numerical HartreeFock framework. We use both nonrelativistic and quasi-relativistic one-electron radial orbitals. We have incorporated the results of these atomic calculations into the plasma simulation code Cloudyand applied them to a lab plasma and examples of a DLA and a sub-DLA. Our values of the Zn II λλ 2026, 2062 oscillator strengths are higher than previous values by 0.10 dex. TheCloudy calculations for representative absorbers with the revised Zn atomic data imply ionization corrections lower than calculated earlier by 0.05 dex. The new results imply that Zn metallicities should be lower by 0.1 dex for DLAs and by 0.13-0.15 dex for sub-DLAs than in past studies. Our results can be applied to other studies of Zn II in the Galactic and extragalactic ISM.

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THE FIRST OBSERVATIONS OF LOW-REDSHIFT DAMPED Lyα SYSTEMS WITH THE COSMIC ORIGINS SPECTROGRAPH: CHEMICAL ABUNDANCES AND AFFILIATED GALAXIES

Cited by 63 publications

References 55 publications

The Cosmic Evolution of the Metallicity Distribution of Ionized Gas Traced by Lyman Limit Systems

The Cosmic Evolution of the Metallicity Distribution of Ionized Gas Traced by Lyman Limit Systems

Discovery of a compact gas-rich damped Lyman-αgalaxy atz = 2.2: evidence of a starburst-driven outflow

Atomic Data for Zn Ii: Improving Spectral Diagnostics of Chemical Evolution in High-Redshift Galaxies

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