Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Mar 2005
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005pgqa.conf..148w&link_type=abstract
Probing Galaxies through Quasar Absorption Lines, IAU Colloquium Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union 199, held M
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
2
Scientific paper
We determine star formation rates for a sample of 50 DLAs from properties of the absorbing gas alone. Assuming thermal balance, we determine the grain photoelectric heating rate of the neutral gas from the [c II] 158 μ! m cooling rate per H atom, ℓc, inferred from C II* 1335.7 and damped Lyα absorption lines. We deduce the star formation rate per unit area and the FUV luminosity per unit co-moving volume, {l}νdla. Comparison of {l}νdla with the luminosity density of Lyman break galaxies, {l}νlbg, shows that {l}νdla>>{l}νlbg for most models. These models are ruled out if our assumption that lbgs dominate the total FUV luminosity density of the universe is correct. The only feasible models are those in which {l}νdla≈ {l}νlbg. We conclude that DLAs in which ℓc>10-27.1 ergs s-1h-1 contain centrally located lbgs, while the gas in DLAs with ℓc ergs s-1h-1 is heated by background radiation alone.
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