Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 446, Issue 3, Pages 3178-3198Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stu2325
Keywords
stars: formation; ISM: atoms; galaxies: evolution; galaxies: high-redshift; quasars: absorption lines; ultraviolet: galaxies
Categories
Funding
- Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/L00075X/1]
- NSF-AST [1109447, 1109452]
- Department of Science and Technology through Ramanujan Fellowship
- NASA from Space Telescope Science Institute [11595, HST-GO-11595.001-A]
- NASA [NAS5-26555, HST-GO-10878.05-A]
- STFC [ST/L00075X/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/L00075X/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences [1109447, 1109452] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We present results from a survey designed to probe the star formation properties of 32 damped Lyman a systems (DLAs) at z similar to 2.7. By using the ` double-DLA' technique that eliminates the glare of the bright background quasars, we directly measure the rest-frame far-ultraviolet flux from DLAs and their neighbouring galaxies. At the position of the absorbing gas, we place stringent constraints on the unobscured star formation rates (SFRs) of DLAs to 2s limits of.. < 0.09-0.27M(circle dot) yr(-1), corresponding to SFR surface densities Sigma(sfr) < 10(-2.6)-10(-1.)5M(circle dot) yr(-1) kpc(-2). The implications of these limits for the star formation law, metal enrichment, and cooling rates of DLAs are examined. By studying the distribution of impact parameters as a function of SFRs for all the galaxies detected around these DLAs, we place new direct constraints on the bright end of the UV luminosity function of DLA hosts. We find that <= 13 per cent of the hosts have psi >= 2M(circle dot) yr(-1) at impact parameters b(dla) <= (psi/M-circle dot yr(-1))(0.8) + 6 kpc, differently from current samples of confirmed DLA galaxies. Our observations also disfavour a scenario in which the majority of DLAs arise from bright Lyman-break galaxies at distances 20 <= b(dla) < 100 kpc. These new findings corroborate a picture in which DLAs do not originate from highly star-forming systems that are coincident with the absorbers, and instead suggest that DLAs are associated with faint, possibly isolated, star-forming galaxies. Potential shortcomings of this scenario and future strategies for further investigation are discussed.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available