Related papers: Metals and Dust in Intermediate-redshift Damped Ly…
We present the direct detection of molecular hydrogen at the highest redshift known today (z_abs=4.224) in a Damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) system toward the quasar PSS J1443+2724. This absorber is remarkable for having one of the highest…
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…
We present the study of a sample of nine QSO fields, with damped-Ly-alpha (DLA) or sub-DLA systems at z~0.6, observed with the X-Shooter spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope. By suitably positioning the X-Shooter slit based on high…
We report Hubble Space Telescope Cosmic Origins Spectrograph far-ultraviolet and Arecibo Telescope H{\sc i} 21cm spectroscopic studies of six damped and sub-damped Lyman-$\alpha$ absorbers (DLAs and sub-DLAs, respectively) at $z \lesssim…
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…
We study the dust depletion pattern in eight well separated components of the z=1.973, logN(HI)=20.83, damped Lyman-alpha system toward Q0013-004, four of which have detectable H2 absorption. The apparent correlation between the abundance…
The similarity between observed velocity structures of Al III and singly ionized species in damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAs) suggests the presence of ionized gas in the regions where most metal absorption lines are formed. A simplified…
We present results from an efficient, non-traditional survey to discover damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) absorption-line systems with neutral hydrogen column densities N(HI)>2x10^{20} atoms cm^{-2} and redshifts z<1.65. Contrary to previous…
The HI 21cm absorption optical depth and the N(HI) derived from Lya absorption can be combined to yield the spin temperature (Ts) of DLAs. Although Ts measurements exist for samples of DLAs with z <0.6 and z >1.7, the intermediate redshift…
The presence of dust in quasar absorbers, such as damped Lyman alpha (DLA) systems, may cause the background QSO to appear reddened. We investigate the extent of this potential reddening by comparing the optical-to-infrared (IR) colors of…
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…
The goal of the Complete Optical and Radio Absorption Line System (CORALS) survey is to quantify the potential impact on QSO absorber statistics from dust in intervening galaxies. Dust may introduce a selection bias in surveys which are…
We study the physical properties of a homogeneous sample of 157 optically-thick absorption line systems at redshifts ~1.8-4.4, selected from a high-dispersion spectroscopic survey of Lyman limit systems (LLSs). By means of multiple…
We investigate the metal contents of Lyman-alpha clouds at 2.2<z<3.6 with 10^13.5<N(HI)<10^14 cm-2 using high resolution, high S/N spectra of 9 quasars obtained with the 10m Keck I telescope. Using an composite spectrum analysis technique,…
We interpret observations of intergalactic low ionisation metal absorption systems at redshifts z $\gtrsim$5 in terms of pressure-confined clouds. We find clouds confined by the expected pressure of galactic haloes with masses $11<\log…
We present Keck/LRIS spectra of a candidate damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) galaxy toward the QSO 3C196 (z_em = 0.871). The DLA absorption system has a redshift of z_DLA = 0.437, and a galaxy at 1.5" from the QSO has been identified in high…
We present chemical abundance measurements for 19 damped lya systems observed with HIRES on the 10m W.M. Keck Telescope. Our principal goal is to investigate the abundance patterns of the damped systems and thereby determine the underlying…
We present Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI) Ly$\alpha$ integral field spectroscopy of the fields surrounding 14 Damped Ly$\alpha$ absorbers (DLAs) at $z \approx 2$. Of these 14 DLAs, 9 have high metallicities ([M/H]$~> -0.3$), and 4 of those 9…
We present a study of the early build-up of dust in high redshift galaxies. The study is based on the analysis of 38 Damped Ly alpha systems (DLAs) for which we derive the fraction of iron atoms in dust form, f_{Fe}. The sample is…
Le Brun et al. (1997) presented the first identifications of the galaxies giving rise to 7 intermediate redshift damped Ly-alpha (DLA) absorption systems. Here, we study the gravitational lensing properties of these foreground galaxies…