[129.01] The Spatial Cross-Correlation of Damped Lyman-alpha Systems and Galaxies at z~3

AAS 205th Meeting, 9-13 January 2005
Session 129 Absorptions and The Intergalactic Medium
Oral, Wednesday, January 12, 2005, 2:00-3:30pm, Pacific 2/3

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[129.01] The Spatial Cross-Correlation of Damped Lyman-alpha Systems and Galaxies at z~3

J. Cooke, A. M. Wolfe (CASS / University of California, San Diego), E. Gawiser (Yale University / Universidad de Chile), J. X. Prochaska (UCO Lick / University of California, Santa Cruz)

For the last 20 years, damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAs) detected in quasar lines-of-sight have offered insight into protogalactic chemical abundances and gas kinematics, yet little is known about the mass of these systems and the population of galaxies they represent. We present a spectroscopic measurement of the cross-correlation of DLAs with Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) and apply this toward determining the average mass of DLAs at z~3. From a survey of 9 quasar fields, we use ~200 LBG spectra (2.4 < z < 3.6) to cross-correlate with 10 known z~3 DLAs. The inferred average mass of DLAs is presented and a discussion of its implications.

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