Related papers: The SDSS Damped Lya Survey: Data Release 1

Damped Ly-alpha Systems (DLAs), with N(HI)>2*10^20 cm^{-2}, observed in quasars have allowed us to quantify the chemical content of the Universe over cosmological scales. Such studies can be extended to lower N(HI), in the sub-DLA range…

Using the GAEA semi-analytic model, we analyse the connection between Damped Lyman-$\alpha$ systems (DLAs) and HI in galaxies. Our state-of-the-art semi-analytic model is tuned to reproduce the local galaxy HI mass function, and that also…

Blind 21cm surveys in the local universe have shown that the local HI mass density, Omega_HI, is dominated by luminous, high surface brightness, spiral galaxies. On the other hand, surveys for host galaxies of damped Ly-alpha systems have…

We explore the redshift evolution of the metal content of damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs) with new observations of four absorbers at z < 1.5 . The main conclusion is that the column density--weighted mean metallicity, [<Zn/H>] = -1.03 +/-…

We present ten metallicity measurements for quasar absorbers near $z=1.2$ that were selected for having unusually significant ZnII absorption in their SDSS spectra. Follow-up UV space spectroscopy of the Ly$\alpha$ region shows that all ten…

We study the cross correlation of damped Ly$\alpha$ systems (DLAs) and their background quasars, using the most updated DLA catalog and the Planck 2018 CMB lensing convergence field. Our measurement suggests that the DLA bias $b_{\rm DLA}$…

The damped and sub-damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs and sub-DLAs) traced in absorption against bright background quasars represent the main reserve of neutral hydrogen at high redshifts. We used the archival Very Large Telescope (VLT)…

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…

We report results from a programme aimed at investigating the temperature of neutral gas in high-redshift damped Lyman-$\alpha$ absorbers (DLAs). This involved (1) HI 21cm absorption studies of a large DLA sample, (2) VLBI studies to…

We present the first D/H measurement in a damped Ly-alpha system at z_abs = 3.025 towards QSO 0347-3819 obtained from the UVES-VLT spectra. The DLA absorber has a metallicity of [Zn/H] = -1.25 and a relatively simple velocity structure,…

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…

We present new chemical abundance measurements of 16 damped Lya systems at z>1.5 and update our previous abundance analyses. The entire database presented here was derived from HIRES observations on the Keck I telescope, reduced with the…

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…

With the Blue Channel Spectrograph (BCS) on the MMT telescope, we have obtained spectra to the atmospheric cutoff of quasars previously known to show at least one absorption system at z>1.6 with very strong metal lines (candidate…

Damped Lyman-$\alpha$ Absorber (DLA), or HI 21cm Absorber (H21A), is an important probe to model-independently measure the acceleration of spectroscopic velocity ($v_\mathrm{S}$) via the Sandage-Loeb (SL) effect. Confined by the shortage of…

We investigate the population of z=3 damped Lyman alpha absorbers (DLAs) in a recent series of high resolution galaxy formation simulations. The simulations are of interest because they form at z=0 some of the most realistic disk galaxies…

We searched quasar spectra from the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) for the rare occurrences where a strong damped Lyman-alpha absorber (DLA) blocks the Broad Line Region emission from the quasar and acts as a…

We present a revised version of our automated technique using Gaussian processes (GPs) to detect Damped Lyman-$\alpha$ absorbers (DLAs) along quasar (QSO) sightlines. The main improvement is to allow our Gaussian process pipeline to detect…

We examine the constraints on theories of galaxy formation that are obtained from observations of damped $\lya$ (DL) systems, assuming they are gaseous protodisks in dark matter halos. Using the Press-Schechter formalism, we find that the…

We present a new sample of 31 CaII(H&K) 3935,3970 absorption line systems with 0.84<z_abs<1.3 discovered in the spectra of Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 3 quasars, together with an analysis of their dust content. The presence…