Linking gas and galaxies at high redshift: MUSE surveys the environments of six damped Lyα systems at z ≈ 3
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2019-08
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Journal Article
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Abstract
We present results from a survey of galaxies in the fields of six z ≥ 3 damped Lyman α (Lyα) systems (DLAs) using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) at the Very Large Telescope (VLT). We report a high detection rate of up to ≈80 per cent of galaxies within 1000 km s⁻¹ from DLAs and with impact parameters between 25 and 280 kpc. In particular, we discovered five high-confidence Lyα emitters associated with three DLAs, plus up to nine additional detections across five of the six fields. The majority of the detections are at relatively large impact parameters (>50 kpc) with two detections being plausible host galaxies. Among our detections, we report four galaxies associated with the most metal-poor DLA in our sample (Z/Z⊙ = −2.33 ± 0.22), which trace an overdense structure resembling a filament. By comparing our detections with predictions from the Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments (EAGLE) cosmological simulations and a semi-analytic model designed to reproduce the observed bias of DLAs at z > 2, we conclude that our observations are consistent with a scenario in which a significant fraction of DLAs trace the neutral regions within haloes with a characteristic mass of Mₕ≈10¹¹−10¹² M⊙, in agreement with the inference made from the large-scale clustering of DLAs. We finally show how larger surveys targeting ≈25 absorbers have the potential of constraining the characteristic masses of haloes hosting high-redshift DLAs with sufficient accuracy to discriminate between different models.
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published
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487 (4)
Pages / Article No.
5070 - 5096
Publisher
Oxford University Press
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Subject
galaxies: evolution; galaxies: formation; intergalactic medium; galaxies: high-redshift; quasars: absorption lines
Organisational unit
03613 - Lilly, Simon (emeritus) / Lilly, Simon (emeritus)
09592 - Cantalupo, Sebastiano (ehemalig) / Cantalupo, Sebastiano (former)
Notes
It was possible to publish this article open access thanks to a Swiss National Licence with the publisher.