Statistical Properties of DLAs and sub-DLAs

(2)SIRTF Science Center; California Institute of Technology; Celine Peroux (1); Lisa J. Storrie-Lombardi(2) ((1)Institute of Astronomy; Mike J. Irwin (1); Pasadena; Richard G. McMahon (1); UK; University of Cambridge; US)

arxiv: astro-ph/0107125 · v1 · submitted 2001-07-06 · 🌌 astro-ph

Statistical Properties of DLAs and sub-DLAs

Celine Peroux (1) , Mike J. Irwin (1) , Richard G. McMahon (1) , Lisa J. Storrie-Lombardi(2) ((1)Institute of Astronomy , University of Cambridge , UK , (2)SIRTF Science Center , California Institute of Technology

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Pasadena US)

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classification 🌌 astro-ph

keywords absorbersmassneutraldensitydlasfractionquasarredshift

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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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Statistical Properties of DLAs and sub-DLAs

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