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Register a new userStatistical Properties of DLAs and sub-DLAs
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Authors
Celine Peroux
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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}.
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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.
We present the results of a systematic search for molecular hydrogen (H2) in low redshift ($ 0.05 lesssim z lesssim 0.7$) DLAs and sub-DLAs with $N(HI) gtrsim 10^{19.0}$ cm$^{-2}$, in the archival HST/COS spectra. Our core sample is comprised of 27 systems with a median $log N(HI) = 19.6$. On the average, our survey is sensitive down to $log N(H2) = 14.4$ corresponding to a molecular fraction of $log f_{H2} = -4.9$ at the median $N(HI)$. H2 is detected in 10 cases (3/5 DLAs and 7/22 sub-DLAs) down to this $f_{H2}$ limit. The H2 detection rate of $50^{+25}_{-12}$ percent seen in our sample, is a factor of $gtrsim 2$ higher than that of the high-$z$ sample of Noterdaeme et al. (2008), for systems with $N(H2) > 10^{14.4}$ cm$^{-2}$. In spite of having $N(HI)$ values typically lower by a factor of 10, low-$z$ H2 systems show molecular fractions ($log f_{H2}=-1.93pm0.63$) that are comparable to the high-$z$ sample. The rotational excitation temperatures ($T_{01} = 133pm55$ K), as measured in our low-$z$ sample, are typically consistent with high-$z$ measurements. Simple photoionization models favour a radiation field much weaker than the mean Galactic ISM field for a particle density in the range 10 - 100 cm$^{-3}$. The impact parameters of the identified host-galaxy candidates are in the range $10 lesssim rho$ (kpc) $lesssim 80$. We, therefore, conjecture that the low-$z$ H2 bearing gas is not related to star-forming disks but stems from self-shielded, tidally stripped or ejected disk-material in the extended halo.
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 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.
In this first paper of a series, we report on the use of quasar spectra obtained with the UVES high resolution spectrograph and available through the ESO VLT archive to build the first sample of sub-DLA systems, absorbers with HI column densities > 10^{19} cm^{-2} but lower than the classical definition of damped Ly-alpha systems (DLAs) 2x10^{20} cm^{-2}. A systematic investigation of the properties of these systems and a comparison with those of the DLAs (Paper II of this series; Peroux et al. 2003b) is expected to provide new clues on the association of high column density absorbers with galaxies and on the overall evolution of the neutral hydrogen gas mass and metal content in the Universe. In the spectra of 22 quasars which were found suitable for a sub-DLA search, we identified 12 sub-DLAs and 1 borderline case between the DLA and sub-DLA systems in the redshift interval z = 1.8-4.3. We measured the column densities of HI and up to 16 ions of low-, intermediate- and high-ionization. We further investigated the significance of the ionization corrections in the determination of the chemical abundances from the low-ionization ions in the sub-DLA HI column density range. Using the predictions of different ion ratios as a function of the ionization parameter computed with the CLOUDY software package, we have estimated that with the exception of one case, the ionization corrections to the abundances of 9 systems for which we were able to constrain the ionization parameter, are lower than 0.2 dex for all of the elements except AlII and ZnII down to HI column densities of log N(HI) = 19.3 cm^{-2}. We finally present the first sub-DLA chemical abundance database which contains the abundance measurements of 11 different elements (O, C, Si, N, S, Mg, Al, Fe, Ni, Zn, and Cr).
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