Related papers: Element Abundances at High Redshifts
Recent abundance measurements in damped Lyman-alpha galaxies, supplemented with unpublished Keck observations, are discussed.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…
It has recently become possible to measure directly the abundances of several chemical elements in a variety of environments at redshifts up to z = 5. In this review I summarise the latest observations of Lyman break galaxies, damped Lyman…
The past few years have seen a steady progress in the determination of element abundances at high redshifts, with new and more accurate measures of metallicities in star-forming galaxies, in QSO absorbers, and in the intergalactic medium.…
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 +/-…
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,…
Element abundances in high-redshift quasar absorbers offer excellent probes of the chemical enrichment of distant galaxies, and can constrain models for population III and early population II stars. Recent observations indicate that the…
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…
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…
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…
Measurements of element abundances in damped Lyman alpha systems are providing new means to investigate the chemical evolution of galaxies, particularly at early times. We review progress in this area, concentrating on recent efforts to…
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…
Damped Lyman-alpha systems seen in spectra of background quasars are generally thought to represent high redshift counterparts of present-day galaxies. We summarize observations of heavy element abundances in damped Lyman-alpha systems. The…
A powerful technique to trace the signatures of the first stars is through the metal enrichment in concentrated reservoirs of hydrogen, such as the damped Lyman-alpha absorbers (DLAs) in the early universe. We conducted a survey aimed at…
Recent observations show the presence of metals in low-density Ly$\alpha$ forest absorbers at high redshift ($z\sim 3$). It remains still far from being clearly understood what mechanisms spread metals over Mpc scales from the parent…
Twenty years of high-resolution spectroscopy at the 8-10 m class telescopes have drastically expanded our view of the gas-phase metallicity in the z>2 universe. This contribution briefly summarizes how these studies reveal a widespread…
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…
The distribution of element abundances with redshift in Damped Ly-alpha (DLA) systems can be adequately reproduced by the same model reproducing the halo and disk components of the Milky Way Galaxy at different galactocentric distances: DLA…
The chemical composition of high-redshift galaxies is an important property that gives clues to their past history and future evolution. Measuring abundances in distant galaxies with current techniques is often a challenge, and the…
The evolution of the metallicity of damped Lyman alpha systems (DLAs) is investigated in order to understand the nature of these systems. The observational data on chemical abundances of DLAs are analysed with robust statistical methods,…
We investigate the evolutionary history of the Universe's metal content focusing on the chemical abundance of several elements (N, O, S, Si, Fe, Cr, Zn) taken from observational data and predictions from chemical evolution models. The…