The Contribution of HI-rich Galaxies to the Damped Lyman-alpha Absorber Population at z=0

Abstract

We present a study of the expected properties of the low redshift damped Lyman-alpha absorber population determined from a sample of HI-selected galaxies in the local universe. Because of a tight correlation between the HI mass and HI cross-section, which we demonstrate spans all galaxy types, we can use our HI-selected sample to predict the properties of the absorption line systems. We use measurements of the number density and HI cross-section of galaxies to show that the total HI cross-section at column densities sufficient to produce damped Lyman-alpha absorption is consistent with no evolution of the absorber population. We also find that the dN/dz distribution is dominated by galaxies with HI masses near 10^9 Msolar. However, because of the large dispersion in the correlation between HI mass and stellar luminosity, we find that the distribution of dN/dz as a function of L_J is fairly flat. Additionally, we examine the line widths of the HI-selected galaxies and show that there may be evolution in the kinematics of HI-rich galaxies, but it is not necessary for the higher redshift population to contain a greater proportion of high mass galaxies than we find locally.

14 pages, accepted ApJ - Includes editorial changes and a new appendix on the HI mass/HI size correlation

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• Revisiting the origin of the high metallicities of sub-damped Lyman-alpha systems
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• Damped Lyman alpha Absorbing Galaxies At Low Redshifts z<1 From Hierarchical Galaxy Formation Models
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• A new Tolman test of a cosmic distance duality relation at 21 cm
• Discovery of a transparent sightline at ρ < 20 kpc from an interacting pair of galaxies
• Gas and Stars in an HI-Selected Galaxy Sample
• Towards Understanding the Mass-Metallicity relation of Quasar Absorbers: Evidence for bimodality and consequences
• The Quasar / Galaxy Pair PKS 1327-206 / ESO 1327-2041: Absorption Associated with a Recent Galaxy Merger
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• The Nearby Damped Lyman-alpha Absorber SBS 1543+593: A Large HI Envelope in a Gas-Rich Galaxy Group
• Infrared Spectral Energy Distribution of Galaxies in the AKARI All Sky Survey: Correlations with Galaxy Properties, and Their Physical Origin
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• HI-selected Galaxies as a probe of Quasar Absorption Systems
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