Related papers: Metallicity in damped Lyman-alpha systems: evoluti…
We calculate in detail the expected properties of low redshift DLA systems under the assumption that they arise in the gaseous disks of galaxies like those in the z=0 population. A sample of 355 nearby galaxies is analysed, for which high…
High redshift DLA systems suggest that the relative abundances of elements might be roughly solar, although with absolute abundances of more than two orders of magnitude below solar. The result comes from observations of the [SII/ZnII]…
We characterize the importance of metallicity on the presence of molecular hydrogen in damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) systems. We construct a representative sample of 18 DLA/sub-DLA systems with log N(HI)>19.5 at high redshift (zabs>1.8) with…
The history and progress of DLA research over the past several decades is reviewed here. Larger datasets and deeper surveys, particularly over the last couple of years, have improved our knowledge of the neutral gas content and distribution…
We compare the properties of a sample of local (z=0) gas-rich galaxies studied in 21 cm emission to a sample of 13 low-redshift (z < 1) damped Lyman alpha (DLA) galaxies identified as the counterparts of low-redshift DLA systems found in…
Measurements of Zn and Cr abundances in damped Lyman alpha systems at absorption redshifts between 0.692 and 3.390 show that metals and dust are much less abundant in high redshift galaxies than in the Milky Way today. We conclude that the…
We present a spectroscopic study of six damped Lya absorption (DLA) systems at z<0.65, based on moderate-to-high resolution spectra of the galaxies responsible for the absorbers. Combining known metallicity measurements of the absorbers…
We present seven new abundance measurements of the elements O, C and Si at z > 4.5, doubling the existing sample of weakly depleted elements in gas-rich galaxies, in order to constrain the first ~1 billion years of cosmic metal evolution.…
We report spectroscopic observations with the Multiple Mirror Telescope for 11 damped Lyman-alpha absorbers (DLAs) or strong DLA candidates at 0.1 < z < 1.5, including several absorbers discovered in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. In…
We present results from a survey of galaxies in the fields of six z>3 Damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs) using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) at the Very Large Telescope (VLT). We report a high detection rate of up to ~80% of…
We compare chemical abundances of Local Group dwarf spheroidals, obtained from recent UVES/VLT observations, and of high redshift Damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs), corrected for dust effects. We focus, in particular, on the abundance ratio…
We present a high spectral resolution survey of the most metal-poor damped Lyman-alpha absorption systems (DLAs) aimed at probing the nature and nucleosynthesis of the earliest generations of stars. Our survey comprises 22 systems with iron…
We study the distribution of star formation rate (SFR) and metallicity of damped Lyman-alpha absorbers (DLAs) using cosmological smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) simulations of the Lambda cold dark matter model. Our simulations include…
We present the results of a search for damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) systems in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey II (SDSS), Data Release 7. We use a fully automatic procedure to identify DLAs and derive their column densities. The procedure is…
A scaling relation has recently been suggested to combine the galaxy mass-metallicity (MZ) relation with metallicities of damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAs) in quasar spectra. Based on this relation the stellar masses of the absorbing…
We present new elemental abundance studies of seven damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAs). Together with the four DLAs analyzed in Dessauges-Zavadsky et al. (2004), we have a sample of eleven DLA galaxies with uniquely comprehensive and…
We present the measured gas-phase metal column densities in 155 sub-damped Lyman alpha systems (subDLAs) with the aim to investigate the contribution of subDLAs to the chemical evolution of the Universe. The sample was identified within the…
We employ observationally determined intrinsic velocity widths and column densities of damped Lyman-alpha systems at high redshift to investigate the distribution of baryons in protogalaxies within the context of a standard cold dark matter…
We have obtained a high resolution, high S/N UVES spectrum of the bright QSO HE2243-6031 to analyze the damped Ly-alpha system (DLA) observed at z=2.33. The metallicity of this system is 1/12 solar at a neutral hydrogen column density of…
Damped Lyman-alpha absorbers (DLAs), seen in absorption against a background quasar, provide the most detailed probes available of element abundances in the Universe over > 90 % of its age. DLAs can be used to observationally measure the…