HST observations of QSOs with medium spectra Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Neeleman M.
  2. Prochaska J.X.
  3. Ribaudo J.
  4. Lehner N.
  5. Howk J.C.
  6. Rafelski M.,Kanekar N.
  7. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

We use the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) archive of ultraviolet (UV) quasar spectroscopy to conduct the first blind survey for damped Ly{alpha} absorbers (DLAs) at low redshift (z<1.6). Our statistical sample includes 463 quasars with spectral coverage spanning a total redshift path {Delta}z=123.3 or an absorption path {Delta}X=229.7. Within this survey path, we identify 4 DLAs defined as absorbers with HI column density N_HI_>=10^20.3^/cm2, which implies an incidence per absorption length lDLA(X)=0.017_-0.008_^+0.014^ at a median survey path redshift of z=0.623. While our estimate of l_DLA_(X) is lower than earlier estimates at z~0 from HI 21cm emission studies, the results are consistent within the measurement uncertainties. Our data set is too small to properly sample the N_HI_ frequency distribution function f(N_HI_,X), but the observed distribution agrees with previous estimates at z>2. Adopting the z>2 shape of f(N_HI_, X), we infer an HI mass density at z~0.6 of {rho}_HI_^DLA^=0.25_-0.12_^+0.20^. This is significantly lower than previous estimates from targeted DLA surveys with the HST, but consistent with results from low-z HI 21cm observations, and suggests that the neutral gas density of the universe has been decreasing over the past 10Gyr.

Keywords
  1. quasars
  2. redshifted
  3. spectroscopy
  4. ultraviolet-astronomy
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2016ApJ...818..113N
See also HTML
https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/818/113
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/818/113
Document Object Identifer DOI
doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.18180113

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History

2016-05-27T12:22:12Z
Resource record created
2016-05-27T12:22:12Z
Created
2022-10-05T07:44:20Z
Updated

Contact

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CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
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cds-question@unistra.fr