Related papers: Relative abundance pattern along the profile of hi…
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…
We analyse a sample of 24 damped Lyman-alpha (DLA)/moderate DLA systems at 0.3<z<2.2, all with measurement of the weak MnII absorption lines, to investigate which elemental ratios could possibly be used as tracers of either dust depletion…
We present a quantitative analysis of the abundances of heavy elements in damped Ly-alpha galaxies in the sample of Lu et al. (1996). In particular, we compare the observed gas-phase abundances with those expected when the intrinsic (i.e.,…
We have measured the abundances of Zn, Si, Mn, Cr, Fe, and Ni in three damped Lyman alpha systems at redshifts z < 1 from high resolution echelle spectra of QSOs recorded with the Keck I telescope. In all three cases the abundances of Cr,…
A new method is presented for recovering the abundances of Damped Ly alpha systems (DLAs) taking into account the effects of dust depletion. For the first time, possible variations of the chemical composition of the dust are taken into…
In order to interpret H2 (molecular hydrogen) quasar absorption line observations of damped Ly-alpha systems (DLAs) and sub-DLAs, we model their H2 abundance as a function of dust-to-gas ratio, including H2 self-shielding and dust…
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…
Detailed analysis of the spectral lines from two low redshift damped Lyman alpha absorbers (DLA) confirms that they are a heterogeneous population. Both systems have low metal abundances of approximately 0.05 to 0.1 solar. The abundance…
Damped Lyman-alpha absorption systems found in the spectra of high redshift quasars are believed to trace the interstellar gas in high redshift galaxies. In this paper, we study the elemental abundances of C, N, O, Al, Si, S, Cr, Mn, Fe,…
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 present elemental abundance measurements for 9 damped Ly-alpha systems (DLAs) and 1 sub-DLA at 0.1 < z < 1.5 from recent observations with the Multiple Mirror Telescope. Most of these absorbers are found to be metal-poor, while 2 are…
Lyman limit and damped Lyman-alpha absorption systems probe the distribution of collapsed, cold gas at high redshift. Numerical simulations that incorporate gravity and gas dynamics can predict the abundance of such absorbers in…
We report new HST and ground-based observations of a damped Lyman-alpha absorption system toward the QSO 0850+4400. The redshift of the absorption system is z = 0.163770 and the neutral hydrogen column density of the absorption system is…
Recent abundance measurements in damped Lyman-alpha galaxies, supplemented with unpublished Keck observations, are discussed. The metallicity distribution with cosmic time is examined for clues about the degree of enrichment, the onset of…
We report results from our mini-survey for molecular hydrogen in eight high redshift damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) systems using the ESO Ultra-violet and Visible Spectrograph on the VLT. In addition, we investigate two systems using ESO public…
Any viable cosmological model must produce enough structure at early epochs to explain the amount of gas associated with high-redshift damped Ly$\alpha$ systems. We study the evolution of damped Ly$\alpha$ systems at redshifts $z\ge 2$ in…
We present constraints on the deuterium to hydrogen ratio (D/H) in the metal-poor gas cloud at redshift $z=0.701$ towards QSO 1718+4807. We use new Keck spectra in addition to Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and International Ultraviolet…
We study metal depletion due to dust in the interstellar medium (ISM) to infer the properties of dust grains and characterize the metal and dust content of galaxies, down to low metallicity and intermediate redshift z. We provide metal…
We study the transverse clustering properties of high matter density peaks as traced by high column density absorption systems (either Lyman limit systems characterized by N(HI)> 2 x 10^{17} cm^{-2} or CIV systems with W_{r}> 0.5 A) at…
We combine predictions for several hierarchical cosmogonies with observational evidence on damped Lyman alpha systems to establish a correspondence between the high redshift galaxy population and the properties of damped Lyman alpha…