No Arabic abstract
Damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAs) are useful probes of star formation and galaxy formation at high redshift. We study the physical properties of DLAs and their relationship to Lyman-break galaxies using cosmological hydrodynamic simulations based on the concordance Lambda cold dark matter model. Fundamental statistics such as global neutral hydrogen (HI) mass density, HI column density distribution function, DLA rate-of-incidence and mean halo mass of DLAs are reproduced reasonably well by the simulations, but with some deviations that need to be understood better in the future. We discuss the feedback effects by supernovae and galactic winds on the DLA distribution. We also compute the [C_II] emission from neutral gas in high-z galaxies, and make predictions for the future observations by ALMA and SPICA. Agreement and disagreement between simulations and observations are discussed, as well as the future directions of our DLA research.
We present the first search for galaxy counterparts of intervening high-z (2<z< 3.6) sub-DLAs and DLAs towards GRBs. Our final sample comprises of five intervening sub-DLAs and DLAs in four GRB fields. To identify candidate galaxy counterparts of the absorbers we use deep optical and near-infrared imaging, and low-, mid- and high-resolution spectroscopy acquired with 6 to 10-m class telescopes, the Hubble and the Spitzer space telescopes. Furthermore, we use the spectroscopic information and spectral-energy-distribution fitting techniques to study them in detail. Our main result is the detection and spectroscopic confirmation of the galaxy counterpart of the intervening DLA at z=3.096 in the field of GRB 070721B (z_GRB=3.6298) as proposed by other authors. We also identify good candidates for the galaxy counterparts of the two strong MgII absorbers at z=0.6915 and 1.4288 towards GRB 050820A (z_GRB=2.615). The properties of the detected DLA galaxy are typical for Lyman-break galaxies (LBGs) at similar redshifts; a young, highly starforming galaxy that shows evidence for a galactic outflow. This supports the hypothesis that a DLA can be the gaseous halo of an LBG. In addition, we report a redshift coincidence of different objects associated with metal lines in the same field, separated by 130-161 kpc. The high detection rate of three correlated structures on a length scale as small as ~150 kpc in two pairs of lines of sight is intriguing. The absorbers in each of these are most likely not part of the same gravitationally bound structure. They more likely represent groups of galaxies.
Quasar absorbers provide a powerful observational tool with which to probe both galaxies and the intergalactic medium up to high redshift. We present a study of the evolution of the column density distribution, f(N,z), and total neutral hydrogen mass in high-column density quasar absorbers using data from a recent high-redshift survey for damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) and Lyman limit system (LLS) absorbers. Whilst in the redshift range 2 to 3.5, ~90% of the neutral HI mass is in DLAs, we find that at z>3.5 this fraction drops to only 55% and that the remaining missing mass fraction of the neutral gas lies in sub-DLAs with N(HI) 10^{19} - 2 * 10^{20} cm^{-2}.
We have examined some basic properties of damped Ly$alpha$ systems(DLAs) by semi-analytic model. We assume that DLA hosts are disk galaxies whose mass function is generated by Press-Schechter formulism at redshift 3. Star formation and chemical evolution undergo in the disc. We select modelled DLAs according to their observational criterion by Monte Carlo simulation using random line of sights and disk inclinations. The DLA ages are set to be 1 to 3 Gyr. By best-fitting the predicted metallicity distribution to the observed ones, we get the effective yield for DLAs about $0.25Z_{odot}$. On the basis of this constrain, we further compared our model predictions with observations at redshift 3 in the following items: number density; gas content; HI frequency distribution; star formation rate density; relationship between metallicity and HI column density. We found that the predicted number density at redshift 3 agree well with the observed value, but the gas content $Omega_{DLA}$ is about 3 times larger than observed since our model predicts more DLA systems with higher column density. The frequency distribution at higher HI column density is quite consistent with observation while some difference exists at lower HI end. The predicted star formation rate density contributed by DLAs is consistent with the most recent observations. Meanwhile, the connection between DLAs and Lyman Break galaxies(LBGs) is discussed by comparing their UV luminosity functions which shows that the DLAs host galaxies are much fainter than LBGs. However, there is a discrepancy between model prediction and observation in the correlation between metallicity and HI column density for DLAs. Further investigations are needed for the star formation mode at high redshift environments.
We present the largest, publicly available, sample of Damped Lyman-$alpha$ systems (DLAs) along Gamma-ray Bursts (GRB) line of sights in order to investigate the environmental properties of long GRBs in the $z=1.8-6$ redshift range. Compared with the most recent quasar DLAs sample (QSO-DLA), our analysis shows that GRB-DLAs probe a more metal enriched environment at $zgtrsim3$, up to $[X/H]sim-0.5$. In the $z=2-3$ redshift range, despite the large number of lower limits, there are hints that the two populations may be more similar (only at 90% significance level). Also at hiz, the GRB-DLA average metallicity seems to decline at a shallower rate than the QSO-DLAs: GRB-DLA hosts may be polluted with metals at least as far as $sim 2$kpc from the GRB explosion site, probably due to previous star-formation episodes and/or supernovae explosions. This shallow metallicity trend, extended now up to $zsim5$, confirms previous results that GRB hosts are star-forming and have, on average, higher metallicity than the general QSO-DLA population. Finally, our metallicity measurements are broadly consistent with the hypothesis of two channels of GRB progenitors, one of which is mildly affected by a metallicity bias. The metallicity evolution of modeled GRB hosts agrees reasonably well with our data up to intermediate redshift, while more data are needed to constrain the models at $zgtrsim 4$.
We use simple models of the spatial structure of the quasar broad line region (BLR) to investigate the properties of so-called ghostly damped Lyman-{alpha} (DLA) systems detected in SDSS data. These absorbers are characterized by the presence of strong metal lines but no Hi Lyman-{alpha} trough is seen in the quasar spectrum indicating that, although the region emitting the quasar continuum is covered by an absorbing cloud, the BLR is only partially covered. One of the models has a spherical geometry, another one is the combination of two wind flows whereas the third model is a Keplerian disk. The models can reproduce the typical shape of the quasar Lyman-{alpha} emission and different ghostly configurations. We show that the DLA Hi column density can be recovered precisely independently of the BLR model used. The size of the absorbing cloud and its distance to the centre of the AGN are correlated. However it may be possible to disentangle the two using an independent estimate of the radius from the determination of the particle density. Comparison of the model outputs with SDSS data shows that the wind and disk models are more versatile than the spherical one and can be more easily adapted to the observations. For all the systems we derive logN(Hi)(cm^{-2})>20.5. With higher quality data it may be possible to distinguish between the models.