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The First Sample of Sub-Damped Lyα Systems and their Chemical Properties

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 May 2016

Miroslava Dessauges-Zavadsky
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Genève, Sauverny, Switzerland
Céline Péroux
Affiliation:
Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Trieste, Italy
Sandro D'Odorico
Affiliation:
European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany
Tae-Sun Kim
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, England
Richard G. McMahon
Affiliation:
Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge, England

Abstract

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We took advantage of the ESO UVES/VLT archive of quasar spectra to build a homogeneous sample of ‘sub-DLAs’, absorption line systems with HI column densities between 1019 and 2×1020 cm−2. According to Péroux et al. (2002), these systems should contain a major fraction of the neutral hydrogen mass at z > 3.5 and may thus play an important role at high redshift. Twelve sub-DLAs have been identified. We performed a detailed chemical analysis, and addressed the issues of photoionization corrections. We obtained the first sub-DLA chemical abundance data base ideal for the study of a number of interesting properties of these systems. The implication of sub-DLAs in the cosmic metallicity evolution was our main concern. We also undertook a detailed comparison of the sub-DLA chemical properties with the well studied DLAs to see whether the sub-DLAs are associated with a different class of objects.

Type
Part 2. Origin
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2004 

References

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