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http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/30110
Title: | Sub-damped Lyman α systems in the XQ-100 survey - I. Identification and contribution to the cosmological H I budget | Authors: | Berg, Trystyn A. M. Ellison, Sara L. SANCHEZ RAMIREZ, RUBEN López, Sebastián D'ODORICO, Valentina Becker, George D. Christensen, Lise CUPANI, Guido Denney, Kelly D. Worseck, Gábor |
Issue Date: | 2019 | Journal: | MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY | Number: | 488 | Issue: | 3 | First Page: | 4356 | Abstract: | Sub-damped Lyman α systems (subDLAs; H I column densities of 19.0 ≤ logN(H I) < 20.3) are rarely included in the cosmic H I census performed at redshifts z<SUB>abs</SUB> ≳ 1.5, yet are expected to contribute significantly to the overall H I mass budget of the Universe. In this paper, we present a blindly selected sample of 155 subDLAs found along 100 quasar sightlines (with a redshift path-length ∆X = 475) in the XQ-100 legacy survey to investigate the contribution of subDLAs to the H I mass density of the Universe. The impact of X-Shooter's spectral resolution on Ly α absorber identification is evaluated, and found to be sufficient for reliably finding absorbers down to a column density of logN(H I) ≥ 18.9. We compared the implications of searching for subDLAs solely using H I absorption versus the use of metal lines to confirm the identification, and found that metal-selection techniques would have missed 75 subDLAs. Using a bootstrap Monte Carlo simulation, we computed the column density distribution function (f(N, X)) and the cosmological H I mass density (Ω _{H I) of subDLAs and compared with our previous work based on the XQ-100 damped Lyman α systems. We do not find any significant redshift evolution in f(N, X) or Ω _{H I for subDLAs. However, subDLAs contribute 10-20 per cent of the total Ω _{H I measured at redshifts 2 < z < 5, and thus have a small but significant contribution to the H I budget of the Universe. | URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12386/30110 | URL: | http://arxiv.org/abs/1907.07703v1 https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/488/3/4356/5538822 |
ISSN: | 0035-8711 | DOI: | 10.1093/mnras/stz2012 | Bibcode ADS: | 2019MNRAS.488.4356B | Fulltext: | open |
Appears in Collections: | 1.01 Articoli in rivista |
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berg_2019_mnras.pdf | Pdf editoriale | 3.61 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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