2006/09/19 by Sara L. Ellison, Ellison, Sara L.
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0609530
5 pages, 3 figures. To appear in proceedings of "The Metal-Rich Universe", (La Palma, June 2006), eds. G. Israelian and G. Meynet (Cambridge Univ. Press)
arxiv created 2006/09/19 · openalex publication_date 2006/09/19 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2022/10/03 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Although damped Lyman alpha (DLA) systems are usually considered metal-poor, it has been suggested that this could be due to observational bias against metal-enriched absorbers. I review recent surveys to quantify the particular issue of dust obscuration bias and demonstrate that there is currently no compelling observational evidence to support a widespread effect due to extinction. On the other hand, a small sub-set of DLAs may be metal-rich and I review some recent observations of these metal-rich absorbers and the detection of diffuse interstellar bands in one DLA at z ~ 0.5.