The First Sample of Sub-Damped Lyα Systems and their Chemical Properties

Abstract

We took advantage of the ESO UVES/VLT archive of quasar spectra to build a homogeneous sample of ‘sub-DLAs’, absorption line systems with HI column densities between 1019 and 2×1020 cm−2. According to Péroux et al. (2002), these systems should contain a major fraction of the neutral hydrogen mass at z > 3.5 and may thus play an important role at high redshift. Twelve sub-DLAs have been identified. We performed a detailed chemical analysis, and addressed the issues of photoionization corrections. We obtained the first sub-DLA chemical abundance data base ideal for the study of a number of interesting properties of these systems. The implication of sub-DLAs in the cosmic metallicity evolution was our main concern. We also undertook a detailed comparison of the sub-DLA chemical properties with the well studied DLAs to see whether the sub-DLAs are associated with a different class of objects.