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Register a new userHigh Redshift Lyman Limit and Damped Lyman-Alpha Absorbers
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Lisa Storrie-Lombardi
Publication date
1995
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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We have obtained high signal:to:noise optical spectroscopy at 5AA resolution of 27 quasars from the APM z$>$4 quasar survey. The spectra have been analyzed to create new samples of high redshift Lyman-limit and damped Lyman-$alpha$ absorbers. These data have been combined with published data sets in a study of the redshift evolution and the column density distribution function for absorbers with $log$N(HI)$ge17.5$, over the redshift range 0.01 $<$ z $<$ 5. The main results are: begin{itemize} item Lyman limit systems: The data are well fit by a power law $N(z) = N_0(1 + z)^{gamma}$ for the number density per unit redshift. For the first time intrinsic evolution is detected in the product of the absorption cross-section and comoving spatial number density for an $Omega = 1$ Universe. We find $gamma = 1.55$ ($gamma = 0.5$ for no evolution) and $N_0 = 0.27$ with $>$99.7% confidence limits for $gamma$ of 0.82 & 2.37. item Damped lya systems: The APM QSOs provide a substantial increase in the redshift path available for damped surveys for $z>3$. Eleven candidate and three confirmed damped Ly$alpha$ absorption systems, have been identified in the APM QSO spectra covering the redshift range $2.8le z le 4.4$ (11 with $z>3.5$). Combining the APM survey confirmed and candidate damped lya absorbers with previous surveys, we find evidence for a turnover at z$sim$3 or a flattening at z$sim$2 in the cosmological mass density of neutral gas, $Omega_g$. end{itemize} The Lyman limit survey results are published in Storrie-Lombardi, et~al., 1994, ApJ, 427, L13. Here we describe the results for the DLA population of absorbers.
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We use hydrodynamic cosmological simulations to study damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) and Lyman limit (LL) absorption at redshifts z=2-4 in five variants of the cold dark matter scenario. Our standard simulations resolve the formation of dense concentrations of neutral gas in halos with circular velocity v_c roughly 140 km/s for Omega_m=1 and 90 km/s for Omega_m=0.4, at z=2; an additional LCDM simulation resolves halos down to v_c approximately 50 km/s at z=3. We find a clear relation between HI column density and projected distance to the center of the nearest galaxy, with DLA absorption usually confined to galactocentric radii less than 10-15 kpc and LL absorption arising out to projected separations of 30 kpc or more. Detailed examination provides evidence of non-equilibrium effects on absorption cross-section. If we consider only absorption in the halos resolved by our standard simulations, then all five models fall short of reproducing the observed abundance of DLA and LL systems at these redshifts. If we extrapolate to lower halo masses, we find all four models are consistent with the observed abundance of DLA systems if the the extrapolated behavior extends to circular velocities roughly 50-80 km/s, and they may produce too much absorption if the relation continues to 40 km/s. Our results suggest that LL absorption is closely akin to DLA absorption, arising in less massive halos or at larger galactocentric radii but not caused by processes acting on a radically different mass scale.
We have carried out a high angular resolution near-infrared imaging study of the fields of 6 quasars with 7 strong absorption line systems at z < 0.5, using the Hokupaa adaptive optics system and the QUIRC near-infrared camera on the Gemini-North telescope. These absorption systems include 4 classical damped Lyman-alpha absorbers (DLAs), 2 sub-DLAs, and one Lyman-limit system. Images were obtained in the H or K filters with FWHM between 0.2-0.5 with the goal of detecting the absorbing galaxies and identifying their morphologies. Features are seen at projected separations of 0.5-16.0 from the quasars and all of the fields show features at less than 2 separation. We find candidate absorbers in all of the seven systems. With the assumption that some of these are associated with the absorbers, the absorbers are low luminosity < 0.1 L*_H or L*_K; we do not find any large bright candidate absorbers in any of our fields. Some fields show compact features that are too faint for quantitative morphology, but could arise in dwarf galaxies.
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 $z lesssim 0.1$, that have yielded estimates of their H{sc i} column density, metallicity and atomic gas mass. This significantly increases the number of DLAs with gas mass estimates, allowing the first comparison between the gas masses of DLAs and local galaxies. Including three absorbers from the literature, we obtain H{sc i} masses $approx (0.24 - 5.2) times 10^9 : {rm M}_odot$, lower than the knee of the local H{sc i} mass function. This implies that massive galaxies do not dominate the absorption cross-section for low-$z$ DLAs. We use Sloan Digital Sky Survey photometry and spectroscopy to identify the likely hosts of four absorbers, obtaining low stellar masses, $approx 10^7-10^{8.7} M_odot$, in all cases, consistent with the hosts being dwarf galaxies. We obtain high H{sc i} 21,cm or CO emission line widths, $Delta V_{20} approx 100-290$~km~s$^{-1}$, and high gas fractions, $f_{rm HI} approx 5-100$, suggesting that the absorber hosts are gas-rich galaxies with low star formation efficiencies. However, the H{sc i} 21,cm velocity spreads ($gtrsim 100$~km~s$^{-1}$) appear systematically larger than the velocity spreads in typical dwarf galaxies.
We compute the z = 3 neutral hydrogen column density distribution function f(NHI) for 19 simulations drawn from the OWLS project using a post-processing correction for self-shielding calculated with full radiative transfer of the ionising background radiation. We investigate how different physical processes and parameters affect the abundance of Lyman-limit systems (LLSs) and damped Lyman-alpha absorbers (DLAs) including: i) metal-line cooling; ii) the efficiency of feedback from SNe and AGN; iii) the effective equation of state for the ISM; iv) cosmological parameters; v) the assumed star formation law and; vi) the timing of hydrogen reionization . We find that the normalisation and slope, D = d log10 f /d log10 NHI, of f(NHI) in the LLS regime are robust to changes in these physical processes. Among physically plausible models, f(NHI) varies by less than 0.2 dex and D varies by less than 0.18 for LLSs. This is primarily due to the fact that these uncertain physical processes mostly affect star-forming gas which contributes less than 10% to f(NHI) in the the LLS column density range. At higher column densities, variations in f(NHI) become larger (approximately 0.5 dex at NHI = 10^22 cm^-2 and 1.0 dex at NHI = 10^23 cm^-2) and molecular hydrogen formation also becomes important. Many of these changes can be explained in the context of self-regulated star formation in which the amount of star forming gas in a galaxy will adjust such that outflows driven by feedback balance inflows due to accretion. Data and code to reproduce all figures can be found at the following url: https://bitbucket.org/galtay/hi-cddf-owls-1
The kinematics of damped Lyman alpha absorbers (DLAs) are difficult to reproduce in hierarchical galaxy formation models, particularly the preponderance of wide systems. We investigate DLA kinematics at z=3 using high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamical simulations that include a heuristic model for galactic outflows. Without outflows, our simulations fail to yield enough wide DLAs, as in previous studies. With outflows, predicted DLA kinematics are in much better agreement with observations. Comparing two outflow models, we find that a model based on momentum-driven wind scalings provides the best match to the observed DLA kinematic statistics of Prochaska & Wolfe. In this model, DLAs typically arise a few kpc away from galaxies that would be identified in emission. Narrow DLAs can arise from any halo and galaxy mass, but wide ones only arise in halos with mass >10^11 Mo, from either large central or small satellite galaxies. This implies that the success of this outflow model originates from being most efficient at pushing gas out from small satellite galaxies living in larger halos. This increases the cross-section for large halos relative to smaller ones, thereby yielding wider kinematics. Our simulations do not include radiative transfer effects or detailed metal tracking, and outflows are modeled heuristically, but they strongly suggest that galactic outflows are central to understanding DLA kinematics. An interesting consequence is that DLA kinematics may place constraints on the nature and efficiency of gas ejection from high-z galaxies.
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