J/A+A/611/A76ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/611/A76doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.36110076CDSDe Cia A.Ledoux C.Petitjean P.Savaglio S.2018-10-01T13:29:27Z2018-08-29T14:04:01ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.frquasarschemical-abundancesextinctionredshiftedInterpreting abundances of damped Ly-{alpha} absorbers (DLAs) from absorption-line spectroscopy has typically been a challenge because of the presence of dust. Nevertheless, because DLAs trace distant gas-rich galaxies regardless of their luminosity, they provide an attractive way of measuring the evolution of the metallicity of the neutral gas with cosmic time. This has been done extensively so far, but typically not taking proper dust corrections into account. The aims of this paper are to: (i) provide a simplified way of calculating dust corrections, based on a single observed [X/Fe], (ii) assess the importance of dust corrections for DLA metallicities and their evolution, and (iii) investigate the cosmic evolution of iron for a large DLA sample. We have derived dust corrections based on the observed [Zn/Fe], [Si/Fe], or [S/Fe], and confirmed their robustness. We present dust-corrected metallicities in a scale of [Fe/H]tot for 236 DLAs over a broad range of z, and assess the extent of dust corrections for different metals at different metallicities. Dust corrections in DLAs are important even for Zn (typically of 0.1-0.2, and up to 0.5dex), which is often neglected. Finally, we study the evolution of the dust-corrected metallicity with z. The DLA metallicities decrease with redshift, by a factor of 50-100 from today to ~12.6 billion years ago (z=5). When including dust corrections, the average DLA metallicities are 0.4-0.5dex higher than without corrections. The upper envelope of the relation between metallicity and z reaches solar metallicity at z<~0.5, although some systems can have solar metallicity already out to z~3.2018A&A...611A..76Dhttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/611/A76CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic serviceIsServedByConesearch servicerelated-toJ/ApJ/755/89 : Metallicities of damped Ly{alpha} systems (Rafelski+, 2012)J/MNRAS/452/4326 : Metal-rich damped Ly{alpha} systems at z~2 (Berg+, 2015)J/A+A/606/A13 : QSO eHAQ0111+0641 spectra (Fynbo+, 2017)https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/611/A76https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/611/A76http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/611/A76https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/611/A76https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/611/A76http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/A+A/611/A76GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapCone search capability for table J/A+A/611/A76/tablec2 (*Dust-corrected metallicities and depletions for the large sample)https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/611/A76/tablec2?https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/611/A76/tablec2?http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/611/A76/tablec2?GETtext/xml+votable180.050000true17.1118333-0.62338890.005555555555555556Cone search capability for table J/A+A/611/A76/tablec1 (*Dust-corrected metallicities and depletions for the clean sample)https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/611/A76/tablec1?https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/611/A76/tablec1?http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/conesearch/J/A+A/611/A76/tablec1?GETtext/xml+votable180.050000true17.1118333-0.62338890.0055555555555555566/2 523 2172 2348 4168 4273 4279 4488 4623 4626 4729 4947 5061 5229 5234 5270 5306 5333 5413 5439 5452 5515 5563 5739 5780 5825 5848 6106 6238 6403 6500 6591 6647 7168 7202 7307 7424 7447 7472 7964 8228 8303 8324 8343 8395 8515 8657 8939 9095 9314 9440 9508 9730 9806 9817 9827 9940 9946 10061 10103 10188 10432 10571 10602 10609 10753 10788 10856 10933 10962 11113 11268 11290 11319 11498 11765 12563 13314 15278 16589 16644 16752 16798 17190 17215 17244 17257 17314 17317 17404 17510 17749 17772 17778 17836 17898 17917 17999 18029 18084 18086 18210 18271 18308 18366 18582 18642 18765 18769 18790 18858 19206 19456 19490 19680 19682 19993 20384 20450 20516 21012 21180 22593 22917 23016 23099 25245 25285 25294 25307 25540 25677 25863 26069 26088 26109 26165-26166 26209 26281 26362 26453 26479 26533 26553 26614 26882 26981 27022 27037 27053 27118 27161 27225-27226 27237 27247 27396 27423 27437 27510 27526 27650 27687 27728 27747 27780 27943 28034 28039 28281 28419 28539 28669 31331 31547 33746 33971 34044 34107 34379 34503 34763 35277 35570 35737 35751 35781 35842 35901 35995 36086 36346 36792 38639 38878 39100 44724 46208 46529 46542 46651 46851 46856 48154 48474 49086 49100 49103https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/moc/J/A+A/611/A76?format=asciidefaultJ/A+A/611/A76/tablec2*Dust-corrected metallicities and depletions for the large sampleSimbadNameSimbad column added by the CDSmeta.idcharRefReferences (2)meta.refcharrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintNameNamemeta.id;meta.maincharzRedshiftsrc.redshiftfloatlogN(HI)HI column densitylog(cm**-2)phys.columnDensityfloate_logN(HI)rms uncertainty on N(HI)log(cm**-2)stat.errorfloatNote[aa] Not eon N(HI) (1)meta.notechar[Fe/H]totDust-corrected metallicityphys.abund.Fefloate_[Fe/H]totrms uncertainty on [Fe/H]totstat.error;phys.abund.Fefloat[Zn/Fe]expExpected [Zn/Fe] abundancephys.abundfloatdZnDepletion of Znarith.factor;phot.fluxfloatdSiDepletion of Siarith.factor;phot.fluxfloatdFeDepletion of Fearith.factor;phot.fluxfloatd[X/Fe]Dust-corrected [X/Fe] abundancephys.abundfloate_d[X/Fe]rms uncertainty on d[X/Fe]stat.error;phys.abundfloatXElement of [X/Fe] abundancephys.atmol.elementchar_RARight Ascension (J2000) from SIMBAD (not part of the original data)degpos.eq.ra;meta.main_DEDeclination (J2000) from SIMBAD (not part of the original data)degpos.eq.dec;meta.mainJ/A+A/611/A76/tablec1*Dust-corrected metallicities and depletions for the clean sampleSimbadNameSimbad column added by the CDSmeta.idcharNameNamemeta.id;meta.maincharrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintzRedshiftsrc.redshiftfloatlogN(HI)HI column densitylog(cm**-2)phys.columnDensityfloate_logN(HI)rms uncertainty on N(HI)log(cm**-2)stat.errorfloatNote[aa] Not eon N(HI) (1)meta.notechar[Fe/H]totDust-corrected metallicityphys.abund.Fefloate_[Fe/H]totrms uncertainty on [Fe/H]totstat.error;phys.abund.Fefloat[Zn/Fe]expExpected [Zn/Fe] abundancephys.abundfloatdZnDepletion of Znarith.factor;phot.fluxfloatdSiDepletion of Siarith.factor;phot.fluxfloatdFeDepletion of Fearith.factor;phot.fluxfloatd[X/Fe]Dust-corrected [X/Fe] abundancephys.abundfloate_d[X/Fe]rms uncertainty on d[X/Fe]stat.error;phys.abundfloatXElement of [X/Fe] abundancephys.atmol.elementcharRefReferences (2)meta.refchar_RARight Ascension (J2000) from SIMBAD (not part of the original data)degpos.eq.ra;meta.main_DEDeclination (J2000) from SIMBAD (not part of the original data)degpos.eq.dec;meta.main