Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Jan 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001iaus..204..307s&link_type=abstract
The Extragalactic Infrared Background and its Cosmological Implications, Proceedings of IAU Symposium #204, held 15-18 August 20
Mathematics
Logic
14
Scientific paper
The Damped Lyman-alpha (DLA) systems are absorption line systems observed toward QSO lines of sight and probe the interstellar medium in galaxies from the local Universe up to the z ~4 Universe. The large amount of high resolution QSO spectroscopy that is available now allows us to measure the metallicity in these galaxies and track the redshift evolution. We have collected line measurements of 69 DLAs in the redshift range 0 < z < 4.4, measured the abundances for different elements, corrected for dust depletion, and studied the redshift distribution. We have found that the whole sample shows a strong correlation with redshift (99.99% significance level), indicating that these galaxies are chemically evolving with time. We also have found that the distribution of low HI column density DLAs is much more homogeneous than the high HI column density DLAs, the latter being more concentrated in the central redshift interval. As a consequence, the total sample cannot be used to study the global metallicity evolution in the Universe, assumed to be given by the ratio of the total metal content to the total gas content in a given redshift bin, because the underlining evolution might be masked by the incompleteness of the high HI column density DLA sample. In conclusion, even if we have demonstrated that the metallicity in DLA galaxies evolves, the statistics of DLAs is too poor to probe the global metallicity evolution of the Universe.
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