Related papers: Chemical evolution and depletion pattern in Damped…
We present 4 new measurements of nitrogen abundances and one upper limit in damped Lyman alpha absorbers (DLAs) obtained by means of high resolution (FWHM \~ 7 km/s) UVES/VLT spectra. In addition to these measurements we have compiled data…
We present a comparison between the observed properties of damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs) and the predictions of simple models for the evolution of present day disk galaxies, including both low and high surface brightness galaxies. We…
We present chemical abundance measurements from medium resolution observations of 8 sub-damped Lyman-alpha absorber and 2 strong Lyman-limit systems at z < 1.5 observed with the MIKE spectrograph on the 6.5m Magellan II Clay telescope.…
Using Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) early data release spectra, we have identified 370 MgII absorption systems with MgII 2796 rest equivalent widths >= 1A and redshifts z=0.9-2.2. From our previous and ongoing HST UV spectroscopic…
The damped Lyman alpha systems seen in the spectra of high redshift QSOs offer the means to determine element abundances in galaxies observed while still at an early stage of evolution. Such measurements, which have only recently come…
We describe the evolution of galaxies in a chemically consistent way accounting for the increasing initial metallicity of successive generations of stars. The enrichment of various types of model galaxies is compared with Damped Ly$\alpha$…
It has now become recognised that damped Lyman alpha systems play an important role in helping us unravel the origin of chemical elements. In this presentation, we describe the main results of a recently completed survey of the most…
We study the Oxygen and Nitrogen abundances in the interstellar medium of high-redshift galaxies. We use high resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio spectra of Damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) systems detected along the line-of-sight to quasars…
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 show that the recently observed elemental abundance pattern of the carbon-rich metal-poor Damped Lyman $\alpha$ (DLA) system is in excellent agreement with the nucleosynthesis yields of faint core-collapse supernovae of primordial stars.…
We report Keck/ESI and VLT/UVES observations of three super-damped Lyman-alpha quasar absorbers with H I column densities log N(HI) >= 21.7 at redshifts z=2-2.5. All three absorbers show similar metallicities (-1.3 to -1.5 dex), and dust…
We aim at assessing what are the most dominant dust species or types, including silicate and iron oxide grains present in the ISM, by using recent observations of dust depletion of galaxies at various evolutionary stages. We use the…
We present the first theoretical study of metals in damped Ly-alpha (DLA) systems at redshift z=7. The features of cold, primordial gas are studied by means of N-body, hydro, chemistry simulations, including atomic and molecular…
The Damped Ly-alpha (DLA) absorber at redshift z_abs=4.383 observed toward QSO BRI 1202-0725 is studied by means of high resolution (FWHM ~ 7 km/s) VLT-UVES spectra. We refine a previously determined Si abundance and derive with confidence…
Our knowledge of galactic chemical evolution is currently limited to observations of Milky Way stars and H II regions of nearby galaxies. Damped Lyman~$\alpha$ systems offer a new approach for tracking the evolution of normal galaxies from…
We report observations of four sub-damped Lyman-alpha (sub-DLA) quasar absorbers at z<0.5 obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope Cosmic Origins Spectrograph. We measure the available neutrals or ions of C, N, O, Si, P, S, Ar, Mn, Fe,…
The most metal-poor, high redshift damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAs) provide a window to study some of the first few generations of stars. In this paper, we present a novel model to investigate the chemical enrichment of the near-pristine…
We present evidence that the cosmological mean metallicity of neutral atomic hydrogen gas shows a sudden decrease at z>4.7 down to <Z>=-2.03(+0.09-0.11), which is 6 sigma deviant from that predicted by a linear fit to the data at lower…
In this paper, we investigate the star formation and chemical evolution of damped Lyman-$\alpha$ systems (DLAs) based on the disc galaxy formation model which is developed by Mo, Mao & White. We propose that the DLAs are the central…
The chemical abundance patterns of near-pristine objects provide important constraints on the properties of the first generations of stars in the Universe. We present the chemical abundances of five very metal-poor ([M/H]<-2.5) sub damped…