2002/12/09 by N. Bouché, Nicolas Bouche, James D. Lowenthal +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0212206
2 pages, 1 figure; uses RMAA .sty files (rmaa.cls, rmaacite.sty). To appear in ``Galaxy Evolution: Theory and Observations'', RevMexAA SC, eds. V. Avila-Reese, C. Firmani, C. Frenk, C. Allen
arxiv created 2002/12/09 · openalex publication_date 2002/12/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We are exploring the connection between damped Ly-alpha absorbers (DLAs) and Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) using deep -- (5sigma)=26 mAB-- broad band imaging (UBVI) of four wide fields (0.25 sq. deg. each) obtained at the Kitt Peak 4-m telescope with MOSAIC. Each field contains a damped system at z=3. We want to address the nature of DLAs at high-redshifts: (1) Are they embedded in much larger systems of galaxies? (2) How does the spatial distribution of LBGs in 3D (space and redshift) correlate with the absorber? Contrary to most previous DLA studies, we are not looking for the absorber, and we do not rely on control fields because each of our fields is 40 Mpc (co-moving) on a side. We present preliminary results in two of our fields. In one case, we see an indication of an overdensity of galaxies on a scale of 5 Mpc. We discuss the possible implications and sources of contamination of our results.