@article{9a6a2df394b64d9984c385d5329e6a92,
title = "Linking gas and galaxies at high redshift: MUSE surveys the environments of six damped Lyα systems at z ≈ 3",
abstract = "We present results from a survey of galaxies in the fields of six z ≥ 3 damped Lyman α (Lyα) systems (DLAs) using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) at the Very Large Telescope (VLT). We report a high detection rate of up to ≈80 per cent≈80 per cent of galaxies within 1000 km s−1 from DLAs and with impact parameters between 25 and 280 kpc. In particular, we discovered five high-confidence Lyα emitters associated with three DLAs, plus up to nine additional detections across five of the six fields. The majority of the detections are at relatively large impact parameters (>50 kpc) with two detections being plausible host galaxies. Among our detections, we report four galaxies associated with the most metal-poor DLA in our sample (Z/Z⊙ = −2.33 ± 0.22), which trace an overdense structure resembling a filament. By comparing our detections with predictions from the Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments (EAGLE) cosmological simulations and a semi-analytic model designed to reproduce the observed bias of DLAs at z > 2, we conclude that our observations are consistent with a scenario in which a significant fraction of DLAs trace the neutral regions within haloes with a characteristic mass of Mh≈1011−1012 M⊙Mh≈1011−1012 M⊙, in agreement with the inference made from the large-scale clustering of DLAs. We finally show how larger surveys targeting ≈25 absorbers have the potential of constraining the characteristic masses of haloes hosting high-redshift DLAs with sufficient accuracy to discriminate between different models.",
keywords = "galaxies: evolution, galaxies: formation, galaxies: high-redshift, intergalactic medium, quasars: absorption lines, UKRI, STFC, ST/P000541/1",
author = "Ruari Mackenzie and Michele Fumagalli and Tom Theuns and Hatton, {David J.} and Thibault Garel and Sebastiano Cantalupo and Lise Christensen and Fynbo, {Johan P.U.} and Nissim Kanekar and Palle M{\o}ller and John O'meara and Prochaska, {J. Xavier} and Marc Rafelski and Tom Shanks and James Trayford",
note = "Funding Information: We would like to thank S. McAlpine, P. Norberg, A. Edge, and L. Wisotzki for helpful discussions, and R.A. Jorgenson for providing the spectrum of J1220 + 0921. RM, MF, and TT acknowledge support by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (grant number ST/P000541/1). This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 757535). TT additionally acknowledges the Interuniversity Attraction Poles Programme initiated by the Belgian Science Policy Office (AP P7/08 CHARM). TG is grateful to the LABEX Lyon Institute of Origins (ANR-10-LABX-0066) of the Universit? de Lyon for its financial support within the programme 'Investissements d'Avenir' (ANR-11-IDEX-0007) of the French government operated by the National Research Agency (ANR). TG additionally acknowledges support from the European Research Council under grant agreement ERC-stg-757258 (TRIPLE). SC acknowledges the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant PP00P2163824). JXP acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) grants AST-1010004 and AST-1412981. This work is based on observations collected at the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere under ESO programme ID 095.A-0051 and 096.A- 0022. Some of ancillary data presented herein were obtained at the W.M. Keck Observatory and Magellan Telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory. This research made use of Astropy, a community-developed core PYTHON package for Astronomy (Astropy Collaboration 2013). For access to the codes and advanced data products used in this work, please contact the authors or visit http://www.michelefumagalli.com/codes.html. TOPCAT, a graphical tool for manipulating tabular data, was also utilized in this analysis (Taylor 2005). Raw data are publicly available via the ESO Science Archive Facility. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2019 Crown 2019.",
year = "2019",
month = aug,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1093/mnras/stz1501",
language = "English",
volume = "487",
pages = "5070--5096",
journal = "MNRAS",
issn = "0035-8711",
publisher = "Oxford University Press",
number = "4",
}