Damped Ly-α Absorbers


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Damped Lyman-α Absorption occurs when a galaxy rich in gas intersects our line of sight to a distant background QSO.

Here is an example of a damped Ly-α Absorption Line. This line is seen in the spectrum of the quasar Q0151+048A.


Here is an example of a galaxy counterpart of a DLA at z=1.9 (the extended pink fluff below and right of the rosa circle):


(from the STIS survey of Palle Møller, Stephen Warren, et al.)

Here is a link to the catalogue of DLAs collected by Curran et al.
Also, take a look at Art Wolfe's (the founding father) page on different aspect of DLAs, Palle Møller's page on Imaging and spectroscopy of Damped Lyman Alpha absorbers, and Jason Prochaska's page on the chemical abundances of DLAs. See also Art Wolfe's on-line paper on DLAs from 1987 in the Level 5 database.

Two semi-polular articles in Danish can be downloaded here:
Galakser i det tidlige Univers I
Galakser i det tidlige Univers II