The most metal-rich damped Lyman alpha systems at z>1.5 I: The Data

Abstract

We present HIRES observations for 30 damped Lyman alpha systems, selected on the basis of their large metal column densities from previous, lower resolution data. The measured metal column densities for Fe, Zn, S, Si, Cr, Mn, and Ni are provided for these 30 systems. Combined with previously observed large metal column density damped Lyman alpha systems, we present a sample of 44 damped Lyman alpha systems observed with high resolution spectrographs (R~30000). These damped Lyman alpha systems probe the most chemically evolved systems at redshifts greater than 1.5. We discuss the context of our sample with the general damped Lyman alpha population, demonstrating that we are probing the top 10% of metal column densities with our sample. In a companion paper, we will present an analysis of the sample's elemental abundances in the context of galactic chemical enrichment.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in PASP. 54 pages, 36 figures. Please contact Trystyn Berg to view Figures 3-32 if desired

References in corpus (55)

• The chemical composition of the Sun
• The Sixth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The SDSS Damped Lya Survey: Data Release 3
• ESI, a new Keck Observatory echellette spectrograph and imager
• Abundances at High Redshifts: the Chemical Enrichment History of Damped Lyman-alpha Galaxies
• On the Kinematics of the Damped Lyman Alpha Protogalaxies
• Column density distribution and cosmological mass density of neutral gas: Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III Data Release 9
• Metallicity Evolution of Damped Lyman-alpha Systems out to z~5
• Damped Lyman alpha absorbers at high redshift -- large disks or galactic building blocks?
• The Metallicity of High Redshift Galaxies: The Abundance of Zinc in 34 Damped Lyman Alpha Systems from z = 0.7 to 3.4
• The Age-Metallicity Relation of the Universe in Neutral Gas: The First 100 Damped Lya Systems
• The VLT-UVES survey for molecular hydrogen in high-redshift damped Lyman-alpha systems
• Velocity-Metallicity Correlation for high-z DLA Galaxies: Evidence for a Mass-Metallicity Relation?
• The UCSD HIRES/KeckI Damped Lya Abundance Database: II. The Implications
• Chemical Abundances of the Damped Lya Systems at z>1.5
• The most metal-poor damped Lyman-alpha systems: Insights into chemical evolution in the very metal-poor regime
• The VLT-UVES survey for molecular hydrogen in high-redshift damped Lyman-alpha systems: Physical conditions in the neutral gas
• First detection of CO in a high-redshift DLA
• Si and Mn Abundances in Damped Lya Systems with Low Dust Content
• The UCSD HIRES/KeckI Damped Lya Abundance Database: I. The Data
• The ESI/KeckII Damped Lya Abundance Database
• The Fundamental Plane of Damped Lyman Alpha Systems
• The Ucsd/Keck Damped Lya Abundance Database: A Decade of High Resolution Spectroscopy
• Zn and Cr abundances in damped Lyman alpha systems from the CORALS survey
• Verifying the mass-metallicity relation in damped Lyman-alpha selected galaxies at 0.1<z<3.2
• The spin temperature of high-redshift damped Lyman-$\alpha$ systems
• Dust depletion and abundance pattern in damped Lyman-alpha systems: a sample of Mn and Ti abundances at z<2.2
• A new comprehensive set of elemental abundances in DLAs - II. Data analysis and chemical variation studies
• A Keck HIRES Investigation of the Metal Abundances and Kinematics of the z=2.46 Damped Lya System Toward Q0201+365
• A comprehensive set of elemental abundances in damped Ly-alpha systems: revealing the nature of these high-redshift galaxies
• Comprehensive Study of a z = 2.35 DLA Galaxy: Mass, Metallicity, Age, Morphology and SFR from HST and VLT
• The elemental abundance pattern in a galaxy at z=2.626
• The UCSD HIRES/KECK I Damped Lya Abundance Database: IV. Probing Galactic Enrichment Histories with Nitrogen
• The Galaxy Counterparts of the two high-metallicity DLAs at z=2.412 and z=2.583 towards Q0918+1636
• The Metal-Strong Damped Lyman-alpha Systems
• The SDSS Damped Lya Survey: Data Release 1
• The SDSS-DR5 Survey for Proximate Damped Lya Systems
• Understanding Physical Conditions in High Redshift Galaxies through C I Fine Structure Lines: Data and Methodology
• The First Observations of Low-Redshift Damped Lyman-α Systems with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph: Chemical Abundances and Affiliated Galaxies
• Bimodality in Damped Lyman alpha Systems
• Galactic Chemical Abundances at z>3 I: First Results from the Echellette Spectrograph and Imager
• Elemental Abundance Measurements in Low-redshift Damped Lyman Alpha Absorbers
• A new comprehensive set of elemental abundances in DLAs III. Star formation histories
• Distinct Abundance Patterns in Multiple Damped Ly-alpha Galaxies: Evidence for Truncated Star Formation?
• H I Column Densities, Metallicities, and Dust Extinction of Metal-Strong Damped Lya Systems
• Relative Flux Calibration of Keck HIRES Echelle Spectra
• The ESO UVES Advanced Data Products Quasar Sample - III. Evidence of Bimodality in the [N/alpha] Distribution
• Cosmological concordance or chemical coincidence? Deuterated molecular hydrogen abundances at high redshift
• Discovery of 21cm absorption in a $z_{\mathrm{abs}}=2.289$ DLA towards TXS 0311+430: The first low spin temperature absorber at z > 1
• HI content, metallicities and spin temperatures of damped and sub-damped Lyman alpha systems in the redshift desert (0.6 < z < 1.7)
• The First Detection of Cobalt in a Damped Lyman Alpha System
• Ionization corrections in a multi-phase interstellar medium: Lessons from a z~2 sub-DLA
• Metallicities and dust content of proximate damped Lyman alpha systems in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The ESO UVES Advanced Data Products Quasar Sample - IV. On the deficiency of Argon in DLA systems
• A Search for Boron in Damped Lyα Systems

Cited by in corpus (16)

• The cosmic evolution of dust-corrected metallicity in the neutral gas
• The ESO UVES Advanced Data Products Quasar Sample - VI. Sub-Damped Lyman-$\alpha$ Metallicity Measurements and the Circum-Galactic Medium
• The HI Content of the Universe over the Past 10 Gyrs
• The Keck+Magellan Survey for Lyman Limit Absorption III: Sample Definition and Column Density Measurements
• Chemical abundances of damped Lyman alpha systems in the XQ-100 survey
• The chemistry of the most metal-rich damped Lyman $\alpha$ systems at z$\sim 2$ II. Context with the Local Group
• High Molecular Gas Masses in Absorption-selected Galaxies at $z\approx 2$
• Keck and VLT Observations of Super-damped Lyman-alpha Absorbers at z=2=2.5: Constraints on Chemical Compositions and Physical Conditions
• Element Abundances in a Gas-rich Galaxy at z = 5: Clues to the Early Chemical Enrichment of Galaxies
• Sub-damped Lyman alpha systems in the XQ-100 survey II -- Chemical evolution at 2.4<z<4.3
• The SCUBA-2 Web Survey: I. Observations of CO(3-2) in hyper-luminous QSO fields
• A survey of Ly$\alpha$ emission around Damped Ly$\alpha$ absorbers at $z\approx 2$ with the Keck Cosmic Web Imager
• A Massive, Dusty HI-Absorption-Selected Galaxy at $z\approx 2.46$ Identified in a CO Emission Survey
• Investigation of the Prompt SNe Ia progenitor nature through the analysis of the chemical composition of globular clusters and circumgalactic clouds
• KBSS-InCLOSE I: Design and First Results from the Inner CGM of QSO Line Of Sight Emitting Galaxies at z~2-3
• Constraining the Metallicities of Damped Ly$\alpha$ Systems Using Extinction Curves