Velocity-Metallicity Correlation for high-z DLA Galaxies: Evidence for a Mass-Metallicity Relation?

We used our database of VLT-UVES quasar spectra to build up a sample of 70 Damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) or strong sub-DLA systems with total neutral hydrogen column densities of log N(HI)>20 and redshifts in the range 1.7<z_abs<4.3. For each of the systems, we measured in an homogeneous manner the metallicities relative to Solar, [X/H] (with X=Zn, or S or Si), and the velocity widths of low-ionization line profiles, Delta V. We provide for the first time evidence for a correlation between DLA metallicity and line profile velocity width, which is detected at the 6.1sigma significance level. This confirms the trend previously observed in a much smaller sample by Wolfe & Prochaska (1998). The best-fit linear relation is [X/H]=1.55(\pm 0.12) log Delta V -4.33(\pm 0.23) with Delta V expressed in km/s. The slope of the DLA velocity-metallicity relation is the same within uncertainties between the higher (z_abs>2.43) and the lower (z_abs<2.43) redshift halves of our sample. However, the two populations of systems are statistically different. There is a strong redshift evolution in the sense that the mean metallicity and mean velocity width increase with decreasing redshift. We argue that the existence of a DLA velocity-metallicity correlation, over more than a factor of 100 spread in metallicity, is probably the consequence of an underlying mass-metallicity relation for the galaxies responsible for DLA absorption lines. Assuming a simple linear scaling of the galaxy luminosity with the mass of the dark-matter halo, we find that the slope of the DLA velocity-metallicity relation is consistent with that of the luminosity-metallicity relation derived for local galaxies. [...] abridged.