Computer Science
Scientific paper
Jan 1995
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995phdt.........8l&link_type=abstract
Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, 1995.Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-05, Section: B, page: 2
Computer Science
3
Silicon, Zinc
Scientific paper
An analysis is given of high resolution observations of metal-absorption line systems in the spectra of 4 QSOs made with the echelle spectrograph on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. High spectral -resolution (9 to 18 km cdot s^{ -1}) observations were obtained for the QSOs S5 0014 + 813, H 0913 + 072, B2 1225 + 317, and HS 1946 + 7658; column densities were derived for the heavy element line systems. Abundances and/or abundance ratios have been determined for 8 systems and a variety of H I column densities in the redshift range 1-3.4 are probed. The systems studies are generally relatively poor in heavy elements, and appear to be similar in heavy element abundances to the gas out of which the Galactic halo stars of similar metallicity formed. Indications of the halo star-abundance sample include the observed ratios of (N/Si), (Al/Si), and (Mn/Fe). The existence of associated H II regions is inferred for a number of damped systems, and it is suggested that the possibly significant amount of gas in H II regions in damped Lyman-alpha systems can be constrained by the comparison of the column densities of O I, N I, N II, Si II, and S II in these systems. The ratio of N(Al II)/N(Al III) is shown to be a poor indicator of the amount of ionized gas in some cases. The abundances of Si as determined from N(Si II)/N(H I) suggest that there is a relatively rapid decrease in abundances in these systems at z _sp{ ~}> 2. Such a decrease in abundances is what would be expected if the galactic (thin) disks did not form before redshifts of z {~} 2. The use of Si II is important, since the weakness of the Zn II lines at low abundances (due to the low relative abundance of Zn compared to elements such as Si) will result in few detections, and in upper limits that are difficult to interpret. The observed drop in abundances is consistent with the decrease in number of heavy-element absorption systems at high redshifts, a result that is found in statistical studies of QSO absorbers.
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