Related papers: Extremely strong DLAs at high redshift: Gas coolin…
We report results from a deep search for redshifted HI 21cm absorption from eight damped Lyman-$\alpha$ absorbers (DLAs) detected in our earlier optical survey for DLAs towards radio-loud quasars. HI 21cm absorption was detected from the $z…
A new method is used to measure the physical conditions of the gas in damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAs). Using high resolution absorption spectra of a sample of 80 DLAs, we are able to measure the ratio of the upper to lower fine-structure…
We investigate the properties of damped Ly{\alpha} absorption systems (DLAs) in semi-analytic models of galaxy formation, including partitioning of cold gas in galactic discs into atomic, molecular, and ionized phases with a molecular…
We have searched for molecular hydrogen in damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) and sub-DLA systems at z>1.8 using UVES at the VLT. Out of the 33 systems in our sample, 8 have firm and 2 have tentative detections of associated H2 absorption lines.…
We detail a powerful indirect method for the study of damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs) at low redshift. We increase the probability of finding a low-redshift DLA to nearly 50% by targeting QSOs that are known to have strong low-redshift…
Damped Lyman-alpha systems seen in spectra of background quasars are generally thought to represent high redshift counterparts of present-day galaxies. We summarize observations of heavy element abundances in damped Lyman-alpha systems. The…
Chlorine and molecular hydrogen are known to be tightly linked together in the cold phase of the local interstellar medium through rapid chemical reactions. We present here the first systematic study of this relation at high redshifts using…
An accurate method to measure the abundance of high-redshift galaxies consists in the observation of absorbers along the line of sight toward a background quasar. Here, we present abundance measurements of 13 z>3 sub-Damped Lyman-alpha…
Simulations predict that circumgalactic hydrogen gas surrounding massive ($M_{\rm{halo}}^{z=1}=10^{12}-10^{13}\ M_{\odot}$) galaxies at $z\sim4$ may be predominantly neutral, and could produce damped Ly$\alpha$ absorbers (DLAs) along…
We present new estimates for the statistical properties of damped Lyman-$\alpha$ absorbers (DLAs). We compute the column density distribution function at $z>2$, the line density, $\mathrm{d}N/\mathrm{d}X$, and the neutral hydrogen density,…
Using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Data Release 5, we survey proximate damped Lya systems (PDLAs): absorption line systems with HI column density N(HI)> 2x10^20 cm^{-2} at velocity separation dv < 3000 km/s from their background quasar.…
Quasar absorption systems not only affect the way quasars are selected, but also serve as key probes of galaxies, providing insight into their chemical evolution and interstellar medium (ISM). Recently, a method based on Gaia astrometric…
We present results of analysis of physical conditions (number density, intensity of UV field, kinetic temperature) in the cold H$_2$-bearing interstellar medium of local and high redshift galaxies. Our measurements based on the fit to the…
We report Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) 21cm observations of two confirmed and one candidate low redshift damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAS). HI absorption was detected in the two confirmed systems, at z=0.2378 and z=0.5247, with…
The chemical abundances in damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAs) show more than 2 orders of magnitude variation at a given epoch, possibly because DLAs arise in a wide variety of host galaxies. This could significantly bias estimates of…
We present the first large, blind and uniformly selected survey for molecular hydrogen (H_2) in damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs) with moderate-to-high resolution spectra. 86 DLAs were searched for absorption in the many Lyman and Werner…
We report {\it HST} COS spectroscopy of 10 quasars with foreground star-forming galaxies at 0.02$<$$z$$<$ 0.14 within impact parameters of $\sim$1-7 kpc. We detect damped/sub-damped Ly$\alpha$ absorption in 100$\%$ of cases where no…
We present the detection of excited fine-structure energy levels of singly-ionized silicon and neutral carbon associated with the proximate damped Lyman-$\alpha$ system at $z_{\rm abs}=2.811$ towards \qso. This absorber has an apparent…
We report the detection of redshifted HI~21cm absorption in the $z \sim 2.347$ damped Lyman-$\alpha$ absorber (DLA) towards PKS B0438-436, with the Green Bank Telescope. This is the second-highest redshift at which 21cm absorption has been…
We continue our recent work to characterize the plasma content of high-redshift damped and sub-damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAs/sub-DLAs), which represent multi-phase gaseous (proto)galactic disks and halos seen toward a background source.…