Chemical Abundances of the Damped Lya Systems at z>1.5

Details Chemical Abundances of the Damped Lya Systems at z>1.5 Chemical Abundances of the Damped Lya Systems at z>1.5

1998-10-23

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9810381v1

Astrophys.J.Suppl. 121 (1999) 369-415

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

18 pages, 4 embedded figures, 20 additional figures. Accepted to the Astrophysical Journal 10/20/98. Uses Latex2e, emualteapj.

Scientific paper

10.1086/313200

We present chemical abundance measurements for 19 damped lya systems observed with HIRES on the 10m W.M. Keck Telescope. Our principal goal is to investigate the abundance patterns of the damped systems and thereby determine the underlying physical processes which dominate their chemical evolution. We place particular emphasis on gauging the relative importance of two complementary effects often invoked to explain the damped lya abundances: (1) nucleosynthetic enrichment from Type II supernovae and (2) an ISM-like dust depletion pattern. Similar to the principal results of Lu et al. (1996), our observations lend support both for dust depletion and Type II SN enrichment. Specifically, the observed overabundance of Zn/Fe and underabundance of Ni/Fe relative to solar abundances suggest significant dust depletion within the damped lya systems. Meanwhile, the relative abundances of Al, Si, and Cr vs. Fe are consistent with both dust depletion and Type II supernova enrichment. Our measurements of Ti/Fe and the Mn/Fe measurements from Lu et al. (1996), however, cannot be explained by dust depletion and indicate an underlying Type II SN pattern. Finally, the observed values of [S/Fe] are inconsistent with the combined effects of dust depletion and the nucleosynthetic yields expected for Type II supernovae. This last result emphasizes the need for another physical process to explain the damped lya abundance patterns. We also examine the metallicity of the damped lya systems both with respect to Zn/H and Fe/H. Our results confirm previous surveys by Pettini and collaborators, i.e., [] = -1.15 +/- 0.15 dex. [abridged]

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Chemical Abundances of the Damped Lya Systems at z>1.5 does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Chemical Abundances of the Damped Lya Systems at z>1.5, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Chemical Abundances of the Damped Lya Systems at z>1.5 will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-226975